Andy Swan's Twilight: My First Sunset
by RogueMetamorph
Summary: For Andy Swan falling in love is easy, especially if her heart's desire is the vegetarian vampire, Edward Cullen. But with her days numbered, she knows their love can't last. For Edward Cullen accepting Andy's immanent death is hard, especially when their romance is new and his morals keep him from saving the one person he can't live without... A Twilight rewrite! OC/Edward Cullen.
1. Hello, Goodbye

**Andy Swan's Twilight: My First Sunset**

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><p><strong><span>Disclaimer:<span> I don't own the Twilight saga (books or movies and any other etc. type things) which includes any of its characters or dialogue. I also don't own any other book, movie, song, TV show, joke, dialogue, quote or character I may have mentioned along the way, they belong to their perspective owners, not me. I just so happened to use it for non-profitable fun in my spare time.**

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><p><span><strong>Author's Note:<strong>**I would just like to put out there that I'm not a huge fan of the Twilight saga. Don't worry though, this is a story for those who love Twilight AND for those who hate Bella and Edward. This is a story where a strange girl falls in love with Edward and makes him understand his strange ways. Please ignore a great deal of the timeline and also ignore everything you've read in the books or the movies- like with my description of Andy's room, most of the Cullen house or her mom and Phil- unless I totally bypass a description which is when it would most likely be when you look to the movie for help- like with her truck, most of the Cullen house or her dad- unless it's a no duh that you follow the book- like with the restaurant in Port Angeles, most of the Cullen house or the meadow. I'm also sorry if their love life is sort of awkward to you, but I tried to get the nonexistent timeline to work somewhat. I hope that you like my take on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight- **_**My First Sunset**_**- and that you will read and review. Thank you and enjoy.**

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><p><span><strong>Chapter 1 – Hello, Goodbye<strong>

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><p>"It's still purple!"<p>

"I know! Stop yelling at me!"

"May, this can't be happening,"

"Well, the bottle says temporary!" Pause. "Well… It did a moment ago. I swear,"

"What?!"

I lifted my soaked head of purple hair up until I could glare at the girl sitting on the toilet tank behind me. She gave me a guilty look as she leaned forward, showing me the bottle's label that now said **permanent** in clean black letters.

The Spanish looking girl behind me was my best friend- May Wilson- and had convinced me that it would be a fantastic idea to semi-permanently dye my hair purple, the color I had always wanted to dye my hair. Today was our last day of seeing each other before I spent the weekend making sure that I was well packed for my move to Forks, Washington, a small town where my father lived.

The smell of hair dye was filling the room with extreme potency, making my eyes burn and only reminding me of what I'd done. I groaned and hung my head back over the yellow 50's styled sink, my once dirty blonde hair now permanently a dark royal purple.

"Mom is gonna kill me," my mumbled angrily as I washed the last of the purple suds out of my hair and grabbed the towel that May handed me. I dried my waist length purple mane quickly before leaning back against the wet counter, my shirt getting wet from the contact. I sighed and looked up at the Spanish beauty sitting on my toilet and shook my head. "Not that it matters, right? I'm a dead woman anyway,"

May's shoulders drooped before she hopped off of the toilet and hugged me to her. "Don't think like that. You've still got time,"

I sighed and leaned into her, laying a hand on her back, annoyed at how skinny she was.

"You okay?" she asked, pulling away to give me a concerned look.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess… It's just that there was a time that I'd be scared out of my mind about doing something like this," I told her, pulled at a wet strand of purple hair. "But now? Now I don't have to worry about telling my mom and getting in trouble. They're going to act like whatever bad thing I do is no big deal when we all know that it would be if I wasn't about to be dead soon. Everything's different,"

May was quiet for a long time before saying; "You knew it would be,"

"Yeah… but a dead girl can dream, can't she?"

I'd never really thought about how I'd die but when I found out that I had a brain tumor growing in my head it became something I thought about… a lot. Knowing that I had something inside of me that would soon kill me despite any surgery or radiation they could recommend made me think a lot about what I'd been doing with my life.

I'd been acting like any normal, nerdy teen. I'd been doing absolutely nothing.

The thought of dying from having my brain squeezed to death didn't seem like the most fantastic way to die. The possibly of this thing giving me seizures, making me blind, or making me lose the ability to use parts of my body, seemed like the worst way to go. But then again, it seemed the only way for me to go unless I got into car accident or a gun fight in the next year or so.

The tumor was the reason I decided to move in with my dad for the school year. My mom and her new husband weren't excited to lose me to my dad but respected my decision. I knew that I was the reason that my mom refused to go with Phil on the road, so maybe now that I was leaving she'd go with and support him while he supported her through this whole thing. Also, I figured that they'd spent most of their life with me while my dad had only been around for the first few years of my life, along with the occasional summer.

So while my mom wasn't all for it, my dad was extremely excited to have me move in. He'd already gotten me registered for high school and was going to help me get a car when I got there. He seemed to have read some of the books that said continuing on like usual was sometimes better than crying and making everyone feel worse. I enjoyed it and I looked forward to seeing him and going to live out in Washington despite the city he lived in.

It was about the size of a rave that had no music or alcohol.

May was a little less subtle about her opinion of not seeing me for the last year of my life. She hated the idea of me leaving her just before our final year of high school when all of the fun stuff was supposed to be happening, like prom, sex, and graduation… not that we'd do any of those things anyway. So, before I left for Washington, May wanted to make sure that she got her fill of me before I left for Washington. We had a final sleepover, May insisting that I make a bucket list that we would do before she left the next day. This included us drinking a whole Screwdriver, watching a horror movie, watching Queen of the Damned, streaking up and down the street and dying my hair dark purple.

"Don't tell them that I did it, okay?" May asked, stepping back until she was sitting on the closed toilet seat, glaring down at the word _**permanent**_. "You asked me to do it- even though I sort of made you do it- but I can't have them mad at me,"

I snorted at her. "I won't tell on you. I'm not crazy… yet,"

"Oh, honey," May sighed, petting my shoulder. "You've always been crazy,"

I mock-smacked her, making both of us laugh until we both heard the sound of keys jangling as the front door opened. I spun around and looked at myself in my hair, hoping for an idea to spring up to save me from having to tell Mom and Phil. It was hopeless though. The short and pale girl, staring back at me with strange grey eyes, no longer had her golden blonde hair that was so unlike her parents'. There was no hope of hiding the yard long length of purple hair beneath a beany for long, and my mom would think it was weird if my whole head of hair was hidden away.

"Ready for the unveiling?" I asked May as she laid her head on my shoulder, having to bend down a little for her to reach it.

She lifted her head and looked at me with big brown doe eyes and shrugged. Leaving me to follow, she walked out of the bathroom, looking like Mia from _Princess Diaries_ when she was learning to walk like a princess for the first time. May was obviously doing it on purpose due to the fact that she was a ballet dancer down at MiMi's dance studio, having gone there since before I had first started taking lessons and then quit only a few months later. She was trying to lighten the mood, but her antics only got me to smirk as I walked out of the bathroom and towards the living room.

I could hear Mom and Phil talking softly and could see May peaking around the corner at them, looking like a five-year-old. I hated these moments where you could play the Jaws music, where your heart starts pounding and you're just waiting to be eaten by your parents. Even though I knew that Mom and Phil wouldn't do anything to me in the way of punishment, I still felt the familiar twinge of fear in my chest.

I finally stepped through the doorway into the living room, looking up at the two adults that stood there, not noticing me quite yet.

My mom was a short woman with hair that had changed color over the years, turning a strawberry blonde instead of just getting darker, looked a lot like me despite the differences in our hair and eye color. She was what I knew I would've looked like when I got older; my hair turning a light brown before slowly turning dark grey strand by strand, my grey eyes growing darker as hers had done before the crow's feet and laugh lines appeared.

Phil, who stood in front of my mom with a box of light bulbs in hand, was a tall man- much taller than my actual dad- and he was built well. His body reminded me of those gangly teens in those romance movies… but twenty years after the movie. His head was bald too but by choice more than the receding hairline and it looked good on him. However, it did pose a problem when we were out gardening in the bright sunshine. The glare!

"Hey, Mom. Phil," I smiled shyly.

"Hey Andy, can you-" Mom began, turning until her chocolate brown eyes settled on me.

The whole room grew silent as Mom and Phil just stared as if I had a gremlin sitting on my head waving at them. This made my lack of courage more noticeable, making me drop my eyes as my cheeks grew red.

"I dyed my hair. Do you like it?"

They looked at me, looked at each other, looked over at May and then back to me again. It was as if they were trying to silently collaborate amongst themselves. It made me nervous, especially when my mom gave me an uncomfortable smile as she stepped toward me, taking a piece of my hair in her fingers. She tested it out, eyeing her favorite color, and then looked up at me.

"It's a very pretty color,"

"Why did you dye your hair?" Phil asked, finally coming out of his shocked state.

I shrugged and looked back down to my hair a little dejectedly. "I'm just defective, I guess,"

"You're not defective," Mom told me firmly as I took my hair back from her and threw it over my shoulder. "I like it,"

May smiled from around her corner. "Andy's wanted to do it for a while anyway. She figured why not do it now?"

By Monday afternoon I was walking off an airplane and into the small Port Angeles airport. It wasn't at all crowded so it didn't take long before I spotted the tall, dark haired forty-year-old with the thick mustache. I headed over to my dad who instantly gave me an awkward one armed hug. Apparently it'd been awhile since he'd properly hugged anyone.

"Hi, Dad,"

"Hey, Andy. It's good to see you," Dad let me go and picked up the ponytail that had swung over my shoulder. "Your hair's longer,"

I snickered and nodded. "And I've dyed it since I last saw you too,"

"It looks… good," he commented as he put an arm over my shoulders and led me towards the mini version of a baggage claim. "You've definitely changed a bit,"

I shrugged out from under his arm. "It happens when you grow up,"

"Should've figured," Dad murmured before smirking at me. "How's Renee?"

"Good. She decided to finally take my advice and travel with Phil,"

Dad grunted his acknowledgement as he quickly snatched the two gigantic purple bags up and led me to his police cruiser.

He was the Chief of Police, which always had made me feel a little weird when I talked to him. I was worried that I'd accidently mention that I'd tried alcohol and then have my dad lock me up in the slammer for who knows how long. I doubted he'd do it but it was definitely a possibility.

The hour long ride to Forks was pretty quiet, both of us not really feeling the need to speak. Dad listened to the news on the radio while I pulled out my MP3 player and my clunky headphones. The music that played seemed to make the car ride through the woodland-y setting all the more surreal, the gloomy skies and the wet atmosphere making me think of werewolves, vampire, elves, ghosts, and goblins. I let my mind toy with the idea of a herd of goblins swinging through the limbs of the trees, the large tennis ball eyes watching the cars with interest, their large ears catching on various conversations.

Something poking my shoulder made me jump, ripping off my headphones as I turned to see my dad trying not to laugh as he watched the road.

"What the hell's bells?" I hissed at him, my heart pounding in my chest as I pulled my headphones all the way off. "You scared me,"

"Sorry," Dad murmured, not really looking apologetic. "I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes,"

I rolled my eyes. "What?"

"I found a car for you," Dad informed me, making my spine go a little stiff.

More times than not my and my dad's tastes didn't match. This translated to a lot of my presents being bought by my mom during the holidays or else getting something weird wrapped in tinfoil and twine. Once I had received a 3-D puzzle that had kittens on it about the size of my fist. I had no idea why he had gotten it for me… I keep it in the back of my closet.

"It's a real good car, real cheap too. I think you'll really like it,"

The two words _real _and _cheap_ echoed in my ears. What was that supposed to mean? Was it kittens-born-in-the-passenger-seat type cheap or flat-90's-mobster-car-with-plastic-seats type cheap? I had no idea and I was hoping, out of those two, it was the first.

"What kind of car?"

"Well, it's a truck actually. A Chevy," Dad clarified, making me calm down at bit. "It's from the late fifties, early sixties. But the thing runs great, Andy, they don't build them like that anymore,"

First of all, I agreed with him. I mean, if you crashed into anything or into anyone, _they_ wrapped around _you_. Not to mention, that those trucks continued to look good regardless of age or rust in comparison to the mobster cars. The only thing worrying me about this was the fact that Dad was trying too hard to sell the idea to me. And that he called it _the thing_.

I just shrugged. "I'll take a look at it,"

Silence followed as we continued down the road.

It was when we actually entered Forks that I put my headphones away and paid real attention to where we were. Everything was the same as I remembered it; gloomy, small, a stop on the way to someplace else and random people still living there for some reason. I used to stay in Forks two weeks every summer, at least until I had put my foot down and insisted that he come up to see _me_. That had been when May and summers lying in bed doing nothing meant more than waking up early every summer morning to spend time with my dad in the cold and damp town of Forks.

When we finally pulled up in front of Dad's house, I recognized it right away. I could still remember the time I had tried to climb the tree next to my bedroom window- I'd fallen about halfway up when a branch broke. I had thought I was dying but my dad insisted that the light I'd seen when my head had hit the ground was the stars that were circling my head. I ended up with a concussion and a nasty scar on my right knee for my trouble along with a very stern talk from my dad and a hysterical call from my mom.

Dad got out and grabbed my suit cases for me, ushering me inside. I walked right past the living room, up the stairs, down the hall and into what used to be my room. It looked almost exactly as I had left it except for a lot of extra dust that hadn't been there before. The room was large, since there were only three rooms that occupied the upstairs; my room, Dad's room and the bathroom. One wall was taken up by the door and my closet, the wall opposite that had a large window that looked like it was trying to be a bay window with the thick windowsill. Beside the window sat my twin sized bed, facing the door, pushed up against the wall to make the room feel bigger. On the opposite wall sat my extremely old dresser, antique roll-top desk, and a cheap looking rocking chair which sat in the corner. The room was filled with my old artwork that was taped to the wall, and there were still little scribbled drawings and/or sayings scattered across the teal walls. My old stuffed animals sat on both my bed and in the rocking chair, a light layer of dust covering them. My bed however, no longer had the old blanket laying over it, instead it was folded on the end, while the bed had a new purple comforter on it, black velvet swirls running over the top of it.

Dad walked past me, sitting my two suitcases and the bag that was on his shoulder down in front of the dresser before looking around.

"The sales lady picked out the bed stuff," he mentioned, looking over at the bed. "You like purple, right?"

"Is there really any question?" I asked, pulling on my purple hair.

"Right," Dad nodded, looking awkward standing there. "Umm, I cleared off a couple shelves in the bathroom for you. And… yeah,"

Dad nodded again before he walked out of the room, apparently finished. One of the nice things about Dad; he doesn't hover.

I sighed and went to work unpacking my stuff… it didn't take long.

A honk made me look up and out my window, pushing aside the curtains to look down at the faded red truck pulling into the driveway. I watched as a young Native American looking boy got out of the driver's side, going around the truck to help his father into a wheelchair. I recognized them easily as Billy and Jacob Black, the older man being one of my dad's best friends. Whenever my dad had taken me over there as a little girl I had been frightened of that man, not to mentions scared that he'd try to run me over. Jacob, on the other hand, was his youngest kid and only son in the family and had been my play mate when we went over there.

I left my room, and went outside to meet them.

"Andy, you remember Billy Black," Dad smiled as I approached them, all the while wishing I'd brought out a coat for myself.

"Of course. Good to see you again,"

I smiled while Billy took my hand and shook it graciously all the while eyeing my hair which he clearing didn't approve of.

"Glad you're finally here, Andy," Billy finally said with a smirk aimed at my dad. "Charlie hasn't shut up about it since you told him you were coming,"

"Keep exaggerating, I'll wheel you down the hill,"

"Right after I ram you in the ankles!"

I rolled my eyes as Billy took off after my dad, Jacob joining my chuckling.

"I'm Jacob," he informed me as he stepped toward me awkwardly. "We made mud pies together when we were little,"

"Yeah, I remember," I nodded before glancing over at our dads. "Are they always like this?"

Jacob glanced over at them as a smile graced his face, making him look younger than I'm sure he was. He leaned toward me, his eyes still on them as he whispered; "It's getting worse with old age,"

Dad and Billy finished messing around and made their way back over to us before Dad patted the truck like a pet. "So what do you think?"

"Of what?" I asked a little confused at his random question. "Because I think that you could use a work out,"

To that Billy and Jacob chuckled, not bothering hiding it.

"Don't make me give back your homecoming gift," Dad threatened with a smiled as the realization of what he was saying hit me like a ton of bricks. "Just bought it off Billy. It's all yours,"

"I totally rebuilt the engine," Jacob smiled.

"No way," I smiled in disbelief, looking over at the truck with love in my heart for the machine before I turned and mock-glared at Dad. "You aren't going to yell April Fools or anything, are you?"

"Andy, it's the end of September,"

"Then I love it! It's perfect!" I laughed happily, a huge smile on my face. I turned to Jacob quickly, taking his hand and pulling him toward _my_ truck, telling him he needed to show me the ropes before he left. Jacob laughed and followed me, getting in on the other side and immediately started explaining the details of the truck.

"Thanks," I smiled as I held out my hand for the keys, allowing him to drop them into my palm.

"So… What's up with the purple hair?" he asked as the truck's engine roared to life. I turned toward him and saw him quickly looked me in the eyes, trying to make me think that he hadn't been eyeing my hair with interest.

"Friend dared me to dye it and I decided to keep it," I explained with a simple shrug.

"Oh," Jacob nodded, thinking on it for a moment before he decided; "I like it. It suits you,"

"Thanks, I just hope everyone else will agree,"


	2. Purple People Eater

**Chapter 2 – Purple People Eater**

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><p>By the end of the week I'd settled into living with my dad. It wasn't that hard once I'd learned the routine. He went to work at about seven, got home around five depending on the day, went down to the diner for dinner nearly every night, spent most of his free time watching sports on TV and spent his weekends fishing. I enjoyed the freedom of living with my dad and the feeling of being needed, at least as far as dinner was concerned.<p>

However, when my time off from school came to an end, I was not looking forward to the idea. I wasn't looking forward to being the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak, an outsider. Not to mention the fact that I had purple hair.

My first day- which was a month into the beginning of school- I pulled into the parking lot in my truck to find that nearly every single vehicle was shiny and new. I found this odd considering the houses around town weren't that spectacular and the only prestigious job in town seemed to be the local doctor.

I pulled into my parking spot as everyone turned to stare at my truck, soon turning their eyes on the sight of the purple haired new girl. Instantly everyone in sight turned and started whispering to each other, trying to pretend they weren't even though they kept pointing. I quickly locked up my truck and swung my backpack over my shoulder, booking it for the front office, making sure I kept my eyes down.

As I pushed open the office door I had the suddenly wish that I hadn't put my hair up in a ponytail. It would have made the perfect curtain to block the odd looks.

I entered the office to find the red headed thirty-year-old secretary sitting behind a fifteen-year-old computer, typing away as she did something very important. I doubted that it could be anything too terribly important since it was Forks, Washington. I walked up to her desk and stood silently until she looked up at me and smiled.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm the new student. Clarinda Swan?"

Yes, my name is Clarinda. My mom thought that it would be cool for her daughter to have one of those unique names so decided to mesh Clarice, my dad's choice, and Miranda, my mom's choice to make a whole new name. If only she had known back then that Clarinda was an actual name. I hated it too, hence the reason I had everyone call me Andy on pain of death.

"Of course," the woman smiled, the look of recognition coming over her face. "Here's your schedule and a map of the school,"

I took them, nodding my head. "Thank you,"

I quickly left, pulling my army jacket more tightly around me as I entered the cold morning air. I headed through the labyrinth of halls and ducked around kids, making sure that my eyes stayed glued to the papers in my hand as often as possible.

"You're Clarinda Swan, the new girl," I heard a voice say as I stepped around a corner, making me wince at the sound of my full name. I looked up to see an Asian guy walk up to me, his bangs sweeping across his forehead, the rest of his hair reaching his shoulders.

"Andy," I corrected.

"Hi, I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place," he greeted with a wide smile. "Anything you need; tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on…"

"Thanks…" I nodded sarcastically. "You'll be the first one I call,"

"Cool," he smiled, bobbing his head approvingly. "You see, I'm on the paper and you're definitely front page stuff, babe,"

"No, I'm not," I said immediately, turning to stare at him in utter fear. "I mean, please don't have any sort of-"

"Whoa, whoa. Chillax. No feature," Eric said easily, smiling brightly.

I sighed. "Thanks,"

Eric walked me to my first class, saying that all I need do was find him and he'd be there. I had smiled and went in, rolling my eyes at his sickly sweetness even though I appreciated the help.

I went through my classes easily, finding that the teacher, the class, and the people were all enjoyable until I got to one class in particular; PE.

PE sucked- I'm sorry, it created a vacuum, as my old science teacher would say- and I absolutely hated PE with a passion. It wasn't that I was bad at it, it was just that I wasn't good at it and that I was incredibly lazy when it came to sports and athleticism. If you wanted me to run a mile away from a rapist, just give me the rapist and the finish line and I'll do it. If you wanted me to beat Hitler to a pulp using kick boxing moves, just resurrect the dude and I'm good for it. Tell me to climb a rope because of a grade and you might as well just hand me some hedge cutters.

I stood as far back as I could as my class played volley ball. They were all pretty good at it, especially the part where the three girls that surrounded me hit the ball whenever it came near me. I appreciated that they got that I was bad at it and I didn't want to play. However, when they missed one, I made the mistake of taking a swing at it.

My hand throbbed as I watched as it go flying at a poor unsuspecting boy, hitting him right in the back of the head. I winced for him before jogging over as he turned around, glaring around the gym, trying to find the culprit.

"I am _so_ sorry," I said immediately, hoping that he wouldn't yell at me or shove me into a locker on my first day… not that that had ever happened to me before. "I told them to keep the ball away from me or else bad things would happen though I meant it more as a witch curse and not as an accidently-hitting-someone-in-the-back-of-the-head thing,"

As he looked down at me, listening to my rambled apology, his face broke out into a dazed smile. I was beginning to think that I had hit him a little too hard when he started stuttering, but then I realized it was probably just a boy thing. I admit, he was cute in a baby-faced sort of way, his pale blonde hair carefully gelled into well-ordered spikes to try to give him more of a teenager look, but he was not my type.

After a few more stuttered out words, he finally began to speak in actual words. "You're Clarinda, right?"

"Andy," I corrected immediately, trying to keep the glare out of my eyes. "But yeah,"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'm Mike Newton,"

"Nice to meet you,"

Then the girlfriend ran over.

"She's got a great spike, huh?"

The girl's smile was blindingly bright, her eyes dreamy until she turned to me. She did not look at all thrilled now that she thought she had competition for her man. I wouldn't have blamed her except that there wasn't any competition. I didn't want him.

"I'm Jessica, by the way. You're from Arizona, right?"

I nodded.

"Aren't people from Arizona supposed to be, like, really tan?"

I eyed her tanned skin that looked like a mixture of sunny vacations and tanning lotion before smirking at her. "Aren't people from Washington supposed to be, like, really pale?"

At that Mike started chuckling and Jessica just gave an uncomfortable smile.

"You're good,"

"That's so funny,"

After PE, Mike escorted me to the lunch room, chatting to me about random stuff as we stood in the lunch line. Again, as I had said before with Erik, I appreciated the help he was offering but I wasn't enjoying the appraising looks or the sickly sweet kindness. Jessica glared at me over Mike's shoulder as he led me to his table where his group sat, even pulled a chair over for me, which made me feel incredibly awkward. I ended up sitting directly beside Eric as Mike pulled up a seat on the other side of me, Eric cutting off whatever he was saying mid-sentence to throw an arm across the back of my seat.

"Hey, Mikey, you met my home girl Andy?" Eric smiled, leaning in close and making me shrink down into my seat to retain my personal space.

"Oh? _Your_ home girl?" Mike smiled, a little bit of annoyance appearing on his face at his new opponent in the imaginary competition for me.

"My girl," a voice said in my ear before I felt someone kiss my cheek.

A second later Mike unceremoniously fell out of his chair and onto the ground.

"Sorry I had to mess up your game, Mike!" I heard the guy yell followed by maniacal laughter as Mike jumped up and took off running after him.

Now _that_ guy I liked.

"Oh, my God," Jessica giggled awkwardly, scooting her chair towards me as I started eating uncomfortably, keeping my eyes on my tray. "It's like first grade all over again. You're the shiny new toy the boys are fighting over,"

"_Smile_!"

I ducked as soon as I saw the camera aimed at me, barely getting my hand in front of my face fast enough before the flash went off. Once it was over I peeked over my hand at the girl sitting beside Jessica, holding the camera, smiling at me apologetically. She was a small girl with nerdy glasses and dark brown hair put up in a ponytail, a girl that reminded me of every single shy girl I'd ever met.

"Sorry, I needed a candid for the feature,"

"The feature's dead, Angela," Eric bit out, getting up from his seat. "Don't bring it up again,"

At the look on the girls face I tried to start to explain but her but I was cut off when Erik patted me on the shoulder.

"I got your back, baby,"

I rolled my eyes at him as he walked away from the table.

"It's okay," I tried to assure Angela, trying to explain why her best guy friend had just tried to rip her head off for no reason. "I just don't want everyone knowing my favorite color. Not to mention if a person could be afraid of cameras, I'd be the first one diagnosed,"

"It's alright," she nodded to me, still looking disappointed. "I understand about the camera. I'd rather be looking through it than smiling at it,"

The loud and obnoxious sound of the cafeteria door opening made us all turn to see a group walk in together. There were three boys and one girl, all looking exactly the same but different at the same time, sort of like the way a biker gang or a nerd herd does. They were all pale with purplish shadows under their eyes as if they had never seen the sun or a pillow in their whole lives. Despite this however, they were all unnecessarily drop dead gorgeous, looking a mixture of underwear model and Hollywood actors all wrapped up in four people. I watched as, two at a time, they started to walk across the room with effortless grace, headed toward a table furthest from where the three of us sat watching them.

"Who are they?"

"The Cullens," Angela answered in a bit of a dreamy voice as her eyes trailed them. "They moved from Alaska a couple years ago. They're Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids but all of the dark haired ones are actually related,"

"Alice- the little dark haired girl- she's really weird. She's with Jasper, the blonde who looks like he's in pain," she told me, pointing her fork at the couple walking past us.

The girl was pixie-like in every sense of the word; her body was graceful and compact, her inky hair was short and spikey up, and her smile was bright and mischievous. As far as the honey haired one was concerned, Jessica was right, he looked slightly tortured look to him, as if he hadn't gotten his fix of heroin or something today. He was tall, lean and he hovered over the pixie girl as if it were his job in life, to stay by her side and not let anything befall her.

It was cute.

"They're kind of a thing," Jessica continued. "I'm not even sure that's legal,"

"Jess, they're not _actually_ related,"

"But they live together, it's weird," Jessica said, scrunching her nose up before she looked over her shoulder and pointed her fork at the next guy walking down the red carpet. "The big one's Emmett and…"

Emmett looked like a gigantic bear. Like the teddy bears you see in movies or at the fair. I seriously had the urge to run up and hug him and/or poke his stomach like a giddy little girl. He also had all of the signs of a jock; he was big, thick, and brawny, had all of the swagger and a sweet dumb guy look going on. He was a large, intimidating mountain of a guy, shining a smile that was as warm as the sun around the room as he walked.

He was definitely cute.

The next moment Jessica suddenly ducked her head as her face broke into a happy, dazed smile, turning to me as she said; "… and the tall, dark, and handsome one is Edward,"

This last one was the flip side of the handsome coin from Emmett. Whereas the first had been big, burly and handsome, this one was simply gorgeous. This one was probably the most striking, more boyish than the others, lanky, with untidy light brown hair that looked like he had ran to lunch for fear of being late. He also seemed inwardly turned and mysterious with all of the signs of a writer, as my old psychiatrist would say. This one reminded me of my version of the Dorian Gray from the movie… and hopefully far less disturbing.

"He's totally gorgeous- _obviously_- but apparently no one here is good enough for him," Jessica grumbled into her food.

I immediately wondered when he had turned her down. It was probably the most hilarious thing to have watched; her shyly asking him out in the best rehearsed speech she could think up and then him saying a flat and curt _no_ before walking away.

I glanced up to see this Edward guy smirking to himself, as if he'd heard what she'd said.

"Anyway, don't waste your time,"

"Wasn't planning on it," I told her honestly, turning away from the group of Cullens.

After all, a lack of boyfriends in my past seemed to dictate the lack of boyfriends in my future.

The first boyfriend I had had been over text when I was fourteen. He asked me to go out with him and the next day he'd told everyone in our class that we were dating. After that day, we didn't talk until three weeks later when I broke up with him. The last boyfriend I had had been a guy who anyone would have deemed perfect for me; nerdy, sweet, polite. Unfortunately, the idea of kissing him made me want to vomit.

Not to mention, my currently dying of a brain tumor didn't seem like the best pick up line.

I glanced up and over at the Cullen table to find Edward staring at me intensely. I looked away as fast as I could, nearly whacking Jessica in the head with my ponytail, feeling really uncomfortable to have a boy giving me a look that said that he was trying to figure out something… possibly a murder plan.

After a minute of feeling his gaze burning into my back, curiosity still ate at me and drove me to look at him again. He indeed was still staring at me, now with a slightly frustrated expression that made me give him a questioning look before he huffed and turned away. I turned away as well, completely confused at his odd behavior. I didn't get to think about it long though, Mike, Erik and the boy that had kissed my cheek, Tyler, returning to our table and began talking as I supposed was normal.

When the bell rang we all dispersed, heading to our classes. Mike and Erik apparently had the same class as me- Biology- and took it upon themselves to walk me there, both of them trying to wrap their arms around some part of me as they walked. I eventually had to duck under them and walk really slow until they got the message. They both walked me up to the teacher's desk and introduced me to Mr. Molina before they were dismissed to their seats. Mr. Molina handed me a textbook and a few papers I would need to have signed before gesturing toward the class to have me take a seat anywhere.

The tables were set up so that there were two people to each table and much to my surprise the only seat left was by Mr. Edward Cullen. I went to smile at him before my body went cold and the familiar feeling of a weight dropping on my heart came over me. He was glaring at me, his body rigid and his knuckles white as they clutched at the sides of the desk, clearly knowing that the chair next to him was the only space left.

I dropped my eyes and reluctantly walked down the aisle, only looking up when I got to the table and only so that I could find my seat and discretely move my chair as far over to my side of the table as I could. I sat down carefully, placing my book down in front of me, setting it at the corner of the table like a perfectionist. I carefully glanced up at him again to find him giving me the most hostile look I'd ever seen on an actual person before, making me shiver as I turned away and scooted to the edge of my seat.

Again, I wished I'd put my hair down for this class. I also wished that someone would volunteer to sit next to this guy.

… Maybe I was right about the Dorian Gray thing.

After a minute, I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Can you stop that?" I bit out at the table until I had the courage to look up. "I may look funny compared to everyone else here but I think you can get over your hate of purple haired people for one whole hour for five days a week,"

His glare seemed to turn even darker; his black eyes helping the dark glare considerably. He turned away though, scooting his chair away from me as far as he could, the way I had.

"Thank you," I smiled, using a sweet voice before turning away from him and paying attention to the teacher as he started the lesson.

It was awkward though. Edward Scissor-Eyes wouldn't stop glaring at me and he wouldn't ease up on his rigid posture either. He looked similar to how his brother Jasper had looked, though this guy gave it his own hostile twist and the phrase _if looks could kill_ ran through my head a few times. After the long hour, the bell sent Edward jumping out of his seat and racing to the door, leaving me shocked and a little thankful.

"So, did you stab Cullen with a pencil or what?" Erik asked with a smile, seeming pleased with me as he threw his arm over my shoulder.

"I've never seen him act like that," Mike commented as he walked up beside me, taking my text book and backpack from me. "He looked like he was in pain or something,"

Unlike a lot of girls, it bothered me when people touched with my stuff, even if they just wanted to carry it for you to be nice. It also bothered me when people touched me without my permission, especially if they were poking or tickling me. All of this meant that I quickly shrugged Erik off and took my backpack and textbook back from Mike. This made Erik give me a disappointed look while Mike's little boy face come back with a frown. However, both continued walking beside me regardless.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "As soon as I sat down he started glaring at me and didn't speak to me the whole period,"

"He's a weird guy," Mike said with a shrug, as if that explained the whole thing. "But if I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would've talked to you,"

"Me too," Erik butted in with a smile, walking closer to me.

"That's sweet," I smiled at them, though on the inside I felt really awkward.

After my last class of the day, Mike found me again and walked me to the office to drop off some papers. He ended up giving me an extremely awkward hug before walking off with a childlike/spazztic wave. I waved politely back before I walked into the overheated office, but I almost turned around and walked right back out.

"_There must be something open. Physics? Bio chemistry_?"

"No, every class is full," the red headed receptionist was saying to Edward Cullen before she spotted me over his shoulder, giving me a small smile. "Just a minute, dear,"

I watched as Edward's back stiffened before he looked over his shoulder at me, glaring. I glared back at him, fear gone and replaced with annoyance and defiance. I hated people like this, people that belonged in melodramatic movies that were evil for absolutely no reason. Why the hell was this guy so hateful? Was he a victim of abuse or molestation? Was he so vain that he didn't want to be seen sitting next to the freaky new girl with purple hair?

What the hell?

"I'm afraid you'll have to stay in Biology,"

Seriously?! He was trying to get out of Biology because of _me_?

"Fine. I'll just have to endure it," Edward bit out as he stormed past me and out of the office, careful not to knock into me.

I growled deep in my chest, glaring over my shoulder at the door as it swung closed. I quickly stomped up to the secretary, setting my papers on her desk, and then walked right back out. I tried not to speed as I headed home, and tried not to give any angry or sarcastic answers on my homework. Once I was finished I was prepared to watch some cheesy movies to get my mind off of my day but my dad had other plans as he walked through the door. He decided to take me out to dinner as a celebration for my first day at Forks High School.

The two of us were sitting in silence when our waitress came over with our dinner; two Top Sirloins, both medium rare. Out of the few things that I had gotten from my dad, probably the most noticeable, was my appetite.

"When you're done, I'll bring your favorite desert. Marion berry pie, remember?" Cora asked with a big sunny smile that I had no choice but to smile back at. "Jeeves. I just can't get over how grown up you are. And _so_ gorgeous. And I love your hair,"

"Thank you," I murmured shyly.

With that Cora left Dad and I to our dinner. There was a long awkward silence as the two of us began cut up our steak and going to work on eating. Dinner talk was definitely not either of our strong suits. We liked to eat and be done, not discuss the weather just for something to do. However, I couldn't help but break the silence just this once.

"So…" I began awkwardly. "Thanks for taking me to dinner,"

Dad just shrugged. "You've been making my dinner for a week now. Figured we could celebrate over something you didn't have to cook," There was another long silence but it was Dad who spoke up this time. "How was school? Meet anyone?"

I just shrugged. "A few people…" I didn't really want to go into detail but curiosity got the best of me, leading me to ask him about the Cullens.

"Are people talking about them again?" Dad asked abruptly.

"Not really… no,"

"Just because they're newcomers," Dad murmured, thoroughly annoyed as he stabbed at his poor steak. "We're lucky to have a surgeon like Dr. Cullen at our poe-dunk hospital, lucky his wife wanted to live in a small town, lucky his kids aren't like a lot of the hell-raisers around here,"

I smiled at how worked up he'd gotten and just nodded. "Okay,"

"I just don't like narrow mindedness," he finished.

I nodded again and returned to my food.


	3. Contacts

**Chapter 3 – Contacts**

* * *

><p>For the next week Edward skipped school. And honestly, I wasn't sure which was more annoying; him glaring at me and scaring me half to Hades or him ditching. Did he really have that big of a problem with me that he refused to come to school? His family was even glaring at me! But I ignored them, following my plan of ignoring anyone that didn't like me and being as nice as I could to those who had deemed themselves my friends.<p>

The headaches that the doctor had foretold about my tumor eventually made a painful appearance. They weren't as bad as the doctor had said they would get but they were bad enough. The truth was that I'd never been that great with pain in general, evidence being that I balled like a baby when I was twelve after getting stung by a bee. So I kept a hidden bottle of Advil with me at all times, ready to self-medicate myself in case of an emergency.

It was Monday now, the beginning of another week at Forks High School. It was raining hard, making everything smell clean and new, just the way I liked… just as long as no rain soaked me. After lunch I walked into Biology with Eric and Mike, Eric talking to me animatedly and Mike stopping outside to talk to Jessica. I took off my blue raincoat and hung it up on the hooks on the wall before pulling my Batman hoodie tighter around me to try to stop the uncomfortable cold shiver that was making its way through my body. I quickly tightened my purple ponytail, ducking around Eric as he hung up his jacket next to mine.

"…and yeah, prom committee is a chick thing," Eric was telling me though I hadn't been really listening until now. "But I gotta cover it for the paper anyway, and they need a guy to help choose the music. So I need your playlist-"

"Are you saying I'm a guy?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

He looked uncomfortable with the question, sputtering out words. "Well, no- I mean- I didn't-"

To save him, I smiled, patting him on the arm. "I was kidding,"

"Hey, Arizona! How you likin' the rain, girl?" Mike laughed as he came into the room.

I rolled my eyes until he started shaking his wet baseball cap over my head, making me squeak and duck while try to smack his arm away.

"What? Don't like getting wet, Arizona?"

Suddenly Mike attacked me, taking me into a huge hug and wiping the rain that had collected on his raincoat all over me. His attack had me shouting and pushing at him until he finally let me go with a laugh. I glared at him darkly as I turned on my heel and started walking toward my desk in a huff.

"Better get used to it, girl!" he called after me.

"Hey, Mike, you're real cute man,"

"Oh, I know,"

"That was really awesome. Why'd you shut down my game? Let a player play,"

"Yah, okay. What are you playing at, T-Ball? You looked like a deer in the headlights,"

"I was doing fine,"

"R-r-really?" Mike stuttered sarcastically. "It l-l-l-looked like you w-w-w-were sticking out,"

"Shut up. I was not,"

I was only about half way to my desk and thoroughly out of hearing range before I realized that there was someone sitting in Edward's seat. I took a deep breath, gathering up my confidence before walking the rest of the way to my table. I quickly sat down my books and dropped into my seat turning away from him, ready to give him the same treatment he would no doubt give me.

"_Hello_,"

I froze, stunned like a deer in the headlights. I hadn't heard his voice before but I was pretty sure that the _hello_ had come from his direction. But it also made no sense, the _hello_ had sounded kind, not angry like he'd been last week.

I turned to look at him to see him smiling at me. I have to admit, it was a bit scary.

"I did not have a chance to introduce myself last week," Edward continued upon seeing my shocked face. "My name is Edward Cullen. You are Andy?"

I gave him a curious look before slowly nodding. "… Yeah,"

"I'm sorry. Do you prefer Clarinda?"

"_No_," I exclaimed immediately, hating that he even said the name. "It's just… you haven't been here so I didn't expect you to call me Andy," I explained though I felt stupid for doing it. I was rambling and I really wanted to stop. "I think my dad must call me Clarinda behind my back because I have to correct virtually everyone about my name,"

"_Onion roots and cells_," Mr. Molina began as he walked through the class, immediately making me stop talking. Bless him. "That's what's on your slides right now. Okay? So, separate and label them into the phases of mitosis and the first partners that get it right are gonna win…" He turned and picked up an onion with gold flakes all over it. "… the Golden Onion,"

I smiled at Mr. Molina as the rest of the students started booing him. I felt bad for him, as I did for most teachers that actually tried.

"_Ladies first_?"

I looked over to see Edward pushing the microscope over to me, making the table vibrate beneath my arms as the rubber bottom made it do mini jumps across the table. Luckily for me, I'd already done this lab at my old school last year so I knew what I was looking for. I took the microscope, but didn't look into it right away, watching the strangely bipolar boy beside me.

"So… you were gone," I stated with a bob of my head. "What happened? Decided that purple wasn't my color?"

"No," he answered quickly, dropping his eyes to the stage of the microscope, looking embarrassed.

I smiled sarcastically before looking into the microscope lens at the see three round-ish cells.

"I was out of town for a couple of days. Personal reasons,"

"Mmhm," I nodded, as I pulled away from the lens to look at him. "You are a horrible liar by the way,"

Edward's eyes flashed up to mine, looking a little angry but nothing compared to how he'd looked last Monday.

"I think I know what your _real_ problem is,"

"Oh really?"

"You're a boy," I said with a smile, getting him to chuckle a little as I wrote down the answer in my notebook. "It's prophase by the way,"

"Do you mind if I look?"

I shook my head, pushing the microscope toward him without looking. I was shoving it as best I could while answering the question and drawing a little picture in the circle. I jumped however, when my hand touched something shockingly cold, my eyes jerking up to see that it was Edward's freezing hand I had touched.

"My apologies," he murmured, pulling back with his eyes down.

I felt bad so I shook my head. "It's fine. My best friend has cold hands, too. I swear, no matter what she did they were always freezing. She always used to kid around and say she was a vampire,"

Edward gave out a strangled laugh that made me look up at him curiously but he was already looking down into the microscope.

"Anaphase," he told me as he looked up. "So, are you enjoying the rain?"

I couldn't help but laugh at him. "You're asking me about the weather? What's next? You're going to ask me to meet you behind the gym where I'll be met by the cheerleaders who will tie me to the goal post?"

"Where did you get that from?" he asked, giving me his full attention once he had finished writing his answer on his worksheet.

"_Criminal Minds_," I explained, giving him a shrug as dropped my eyes, trying to hide that my cheeks were beginning to glow red with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I just don't do well with people I think hate me-"

"I don't hate you," he interrupted, looking at me seriously. "And I really was just asking you about the weather,"

I looked at him, trying to gauge if he was being sincere or not. He seemed to be, but then again I hadn't really had all that much experience with people, especially bipolar people.

I decided to answer the question. "I like rain but not getting wet. I just sort of got tired of how hot it was where I lived before. I mean, I used to hate how cold and wet it was when I was visiting here but it's not so bad,"

"Then why did you move to Forks?"

"It's kind of complicated…"

"Then tell me the short version," Edward said, though it sounded more like a question.

He turned toward me, pushing away his worksheet and giving me the impression that he wanted to know and was interested. I thought about it for a moment, debating on whether I wanted a complete stranger to know my business. I didn't exactly want everyone in the school to know… but then again, this guy didn't talk to anyone but his family.

"My parents are divorced and my dad lives here," I began to explain, giving him the skin and bones explanation. "And a few months ago I found out I was sick… very sick… so I decided to come here to spend some time with him,"

"What kind of _very sick_?" Edward asked, leaning forward a bit.

I felt the urge to tell him but I stopped when Mr. Molina walked by, making me drop my head and add a few more squiggles to my anaphase drawing. Once he was gone I looked back up at Edward to find him still waiting on my answer.

I sighed. "I have a brain tumor,"

Edward stared at me for a long moment, probably shocked that I'd told him. I was a little shocked that I had told him too but then again it was nice telling someone here instead of keeping it all to myself.

After a long moment, he thawed and gave me a sad look. "I'm so sorry,"

I was a little taken aback by his sincere apology, making me drop my eyes as I pulled the microscope back towards me.

"Thanks… but I guess it could be worse. I don't have Leukemia or have to grow old and get Alzheimer's. I guess I'm living on the brighter side of death,"

"There's a brighter side to death?"

I looked over at him and grinned. "_Yes. It's just harder to see_,"

Edward gave me a weird look, clearly not getting the movie quote. I just snorted and dropped my eyes back down to the microscope, writing down_ interphase_ on my worksheet and starting to sketch out what the cell looked like. I glanced over to find Edward doing the same, probably having seen my answer. We were silent for a minute, finishing the part of the lab that had to do with the microscope before beginning to answer the questions at the bottom.

"So…" Edward began, making me stop what I was doing and look up at him. "How has it been coming here and starting new? Do you regret it?"

"No. It's kind of been nice coming here where people know I exist. Here boys seem to take notice of me versus back at home where I was '_That one chick. You know, May's best friend. No, the nerdy one. Yeah, her_,'" I snorted at how realistic that had been. "And I'd rather have gotten out of being stuck in the same rut before I died,"

"Is there anything you wish to do before you die?" he asked me, looking up at me with strange golden eyes, the were the complete opposite of mine. "Isn't it typical that those near death write a list of things they would like to do? … Bucket lists?"

I gave him a smirk. "I actually _did_ write one of those. May made me do all of them,"

"What was on your list?" he asked, turning toward me, almost looking excited to hear it.

I looked up at the ceiling and squinted, as if there was writing on the ceiling that would help me remember. "… Watching horror movies and Queen of the Damned, drinking a whole Screw driver, streaking up and down the street, and this," I pulled at my purple ponytail, wrapping the end of it around my finger. "I also had my first kiss and my first time on there but for some reason she wouldn't help me with that," I snorted, looking back down and reading the next lab question so I couldn't see his surprised expression. There was a long moment of silence as I wrote my answer down before he spoke again.

"Are you scared of dying?"

I looked up at him in surprise before I looked away. I admit that I had thought about it a few times during the months that I had known that I was destined to die but no one had ever asked me this question outright. I could feel my heart beating a little faster, images of my mom and dad flashing through my mind's eye… Images of me in a coffin.

"Yes," I finally answered, though I wasn't being completely honest. "I am but not to the extent that I think I should be afraid. I fell like I'm too far away from my expiration date to be truly scared yet. I mean, I don't exactly look forward to dying from brain compression," I looked over at him as he studied me before I smiled. "May I ask you a question, Mr. Cullen?"

"Of course, Miss Swan," he nodded with a smirk.

"Why does it matter to you?"

Edward seemed to be caught off guard by this question, making him smile at me. "I guess I'm just trying to understand you. I'm usually good at reading people but you are very hard for me to read. Am I bothering you with my questions?"

"No," I told him honestly, looking into his golden eyes. "But I don't typically tell everyone about my feelings on life and death when I first meet them. I especially don't tell it to people who glared at me my first day at school,"

"Yes, I assume that does not happen often,"

I nodded. "Did you get contacts?" I asked pointing at my own eyes when he frowned. "You know, those weird things that go in your eyes that make you see better?"

"No," he said shortly, seeming upset with me now.

I didn't miss the fact that he tried to keep his eyes down now that I'd asked.

"Funny. Your eyes were black last week,"

"Maybe it's the fluorescents,"

"Of course it is," I nodded, heavy on the sarcasm. "Did you know that gullible isn't in the dictionary?"

"Yes it is," Edward argued, looking up at me again.

"Not anymore," I argued, trying to be completely serious. "Gullible was taken out last year,"

"No it…" Edward stopped himself and I could see the gears slowly working in his head before he reluctantly smiled. "That's not funny,"

I laughed outright. "Oh, yes it is,"

He just rolled his eyes and returned to his worksheet.

By the end of class, Edward and I had finished the assignment and had had over twenty minutes of free time while everyone else was still working. Edward had continued to ask me random questions about myself. Two minutes before the bell rang, Edward and I were awarded the Golden Onion, which Edward quickly handed over to me. I didn't mind, I thought the poor little made up onion was cute.

Once the bell rang, Edward was out the door as quickly as he was that last time I had watched him race through the door but this time I watched him with interest.

"_That was awful_,"

I turned to see an annoyed looking Mike standing next to me, my backpack swung over his shoulder. My stayed on my backpack, my fingers itching with the need to snatch it back from him.

"They all looked exactly the same," he continued. "You're lucky you had Cullen for a partner,"

I glared at him; feeling insulted as I swiftly took my backpack back. "As a matter of fact, I sort of enjoyed it. I didn't have any trouble with it at all,"

Mike seemed to ignore my little outburst or else sensed my sour mood and was now changing the subject. "Cullen seemed friendly enough today,"

I rolled my eyes at him and left him to follow me out of the classroom.

Days went by and Edward chose to remain at school instead of ditching. His family refused to stop giving me weird looks though, especially Alice who seemed to be intent on giving me as many smiley faces as she could. I found that I didn't mind for the most part because I now had a guy friend to who wasn't in love with me and didn't want to agree with whatever I said.

Edward wasn't anywhere near the indifferent and unfriendly git I'd thought he'd been my first day, which still confused me. He was actually very kind and shy when he got around to it. I enjoyed his company and I liked to hear what he thought or how he felt about various topics, I was annoyed at his intelligence that made me feel like a little girl, and I was amused by his frustrating stubbornness.

By the end of the first week of us sitting together in Biology we'd shaken on being friends, deciding that from then on we wouldn't be assholes or moody gals. But secretly, I knew that it was stupid imagining that I had a crush on Edward Cullen.


	4. Accidents Happen

**Chapter 4 – Accidents Happen**

* * *

><p>About a month after Edward first started talking to me, I woke up to find that my room was deathly cold. This wasn't unusual in Washington but it came as a shock to my warm blooded self, making me curl up into a tight ball and wish that my comforter was warmer. I shivered and tucked my head beneath the covers, hoping that my warm breath would help speed up the accumulation of warmth. It didn't… at least as not as fast as I wanted it do. After realizing that I'd need to get up sooner or later, I went to my window to find miniature snowflakes falling lazily to the frozen ground, the rain that had been on the ground the previous day creating a thin layer ice.<p>

I groaned like a rusty car door. I hated driving and I despised driving in the snow and especially when it was icy. I had no urge to die from getting in a car crash.

I got dressed anyway, putting on a Spider-Man t-shirt and a grandfather sweater. I left my hair down, hoping that maybe it would keep my face and neck warm, and went downstairs to find that Dad was gone as usual. I decided skip breakfast as usual, throwing my backpack over my shoulder and heading out into the cold morning.

Once outside I knew there was something different about my truck. _Was it pregnant_? As I slipped and slid down the walkway I noticed what it was; snow chains. I smiled down at them as I realized Dad had put them on for me. I doubted it would help my overcompensating, scared-out-of-my-mind, going-to-kill-myself driving but it was the thought that counted.

I got in and drove all the way to school without an incident, even got into my normal spot without dying. I braced myself against the door as my feet met the icy ground, turning around the grab my backpack. Once I had the door closed, I turned and glanced up to see Edward standing by the end of his shiny rich boy car that reminded me of a snail. I smiled at him in greeting before I heard something hit the ground. I recognized the sound as I looked down at my old black MP3 player lying on the icy asphalt. As I bent down to pick it up, I heard a familiar noise that I'd only ever heard in movies, the kind of sound that makes your heart jump.

With my MP3 player in my hand, I looked up to see Tyler's van speeding around the corner before it went into a skid. It twisted and turned but remained aimed at me, sliding over the ice at an alarming speed.

Now I knew exactly what a poor little deer feels like right before it gets squished beneath a semi truck's multiple tires.

Just before I heard the shattering crunch of the van folding around the truck bed- me creating the mushy meat in the middle of the unfortunate sandwich- something hit me hard, but not from the direction I was expecting. My head cracked against the blacktop and I felt something solid and cold pinning me to the ground. I didn't have a chance to notice anything else because the van was still coming, curling around the end of my truck.

Cussing near my head made me aware that someone was with me, the voice was impossible not to recognize. Two long, white hands shot out protectively in front of me and the van shuddered to a stop a foot from my face. Then his hands moved so fast they blurred, gripping under the body of the van and something dragging me, swinging my legs around like a rag doll's till they hit the tire of the tan car I'd parked next to. A groaning metallic thud hurt my ears as the van settled exactly where my legs had been a millisecond before.

It was absolutely silent for one long second before the screaming began. In the abrupt bedlam, I could hear more than one person shouting my name but more clearly than all the yelling I could hear Edward's low, frantic voice in my ear.

"Andy? Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine," I said instantly without thinking beyond the fact that my voice sounded weird. "I'm fine. I'm okay… Where's my MP3 player?"

"Your what?"

"Where's my MP3 player?" I repeated without thinking about it. I hadn't meant to start asking about the little device but it suddenly felt like the most important thing.

I looked around desperately until I spotted the black rectangle there.

"I found it,"

The sound of Edward's chuckle filled my ear.

I tried to sit up and groaned in annoyance when I couldn't, realizing it was because Edward was holding me against him in an iron grasp. I nudged him, making an annoyed sound, wanting him to let go and getting even more annoyed when he wouldn't.

"Be careful," he warned as I struggled against him. "I believe you hit your head quite hard,"

Of course, when he said this, I became aware of a throbbing ach centered above my left ear, making me groan and wince.

"That's what I thought," His voice, amazingly, sounded like he was suppressing laughter.

"You shouldn't be surprised that a brain tumor patient has a headache,"

He didn't seem amused as he let me go, allowing me to sit on the pavement. I hissed as my butt met the frozen ground, my body shifting uncomfortably until it got used to the temperature. My already MP3 occupied hand coming up to touch the back of my aching head, my face twisting in annoyance.

"How… How did you get over here so fast?"

"I was standing right next to you," he said, his tone getting serious as his expression grew hard.

"I think I would remember that. Brain damage or no brain damage,"

I carefully fingered the back of my head as people finally reached us, screaming so loud that I had to cover my ears as my eyes began to water. I felt like my skull was about to split open, the voices being the instrument that was both doing the splitting and the banging. I was only aware of the horrid banging and the cold hand that was resting on my shoulder, the thumb brushing at the collar of my shirt.

"They won't shut up… ow,"

"Shh, you'll be fine, Andy,"

"No," I frowned. "God, it hurts,"

At some point, while I was on the ground busy with my headache, I was ushered into an ambulance so I could be taken me to the hospital, Dad joining me. When I got to the hospital, a nurse with a very soft quiet voice helped me out of my clothes and took me to get my head X-rayed. Once all my information and tests were taken I was wheeled into a hospital room where I was roommates with Tyler, the owner of the van that had nearly squashed me. He looked horrible, his typically caramel skin was pale and he had a number of bandages covering him, some with a bit of blood showing through.

Immediately he began to apologize. "I'm so sorry, Andy. I tried to stop,"

"I know. It's okay,"

"I really am sorry. I could have killed you. I just lost control-"

"Seriously. I'm fine. It wasn't your fault. It's fine," I tried to assure him as I got out of the wheel chair and into the uncomfortable hospital bed.

The nurse had just finished helping me under the paper-like covers when a young, handsome, blond doctor walked in with the name tag that proclaimed him Dr. Carlisle Cullen.

"I heard the chief's daughter was here," he smiled as he walked over to me, nodding politely to the nurse before talking my chart from her and flipping through it. "Well, Clarinda-"

"Andy," I corrected.

"_Andy_. How are you feeling?"

"Okay,"

He held up my X-ray to the light and seemed surprised for a moment before he looked back down at my file again and turned to me. "It says here that you have a brain tumor,"

I nodded even though it sounded like a statement.

"You aren't getting treatment?"

I shook my head and regretted it. "It's too ingrained in there for anything to be helpful. I'd rather have a tumor and be comfortable than have a wilted tumor and feel the urge to slit my wrists after radiation,"

Dr. Cullen's eyebrow's shot up towards his hairline but he didn't comment further about it, turning back to the X-ray. "Well, your X-rays look good otherwise. Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard,"

"Headache where I went down but I think I'm good," I told him as he reached up and prodded my head gently with icy cold fingers until he hit a tender spot. "_Ow_,"

"Tender?"

"I've had worse,"

Dr. Cullen accepted this was a nod as he pulled out his pen light and checked for weird pupil dilation while I stared at his finger. After a minute he put it away, apparently not finding anything out of the normal.

"Well, your father is in the waiting room- you can go home with him now. But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all,"

"Like I have now regardless?"

"Beyond the usual," he said with a smirk. "Take some Tylenol for the pain,"

"It doesn't hurt that bad," I assured him, about to let him continue on with his business when the evil voice on my shoulder (no, I'm not crazy) started chuckling. I couldn't help but add in; "Luckily Edward got to me so quickly. Your son's reflexes are amazing,"

Dr. Cullen stopped for a moment at hearing about his adopted son. I found this odd, especially when he looked up at me with a practiced smile. "Oh… yes,"

With that he decided to ignore me and move on to Tyler.

"I'm afraid _you_ will have to stay with us just a little bit longer,"

It was strange, the type of reactions I was getting from this family. Edward giving me the death glare on our first day for no reason, his family glaring at me for _him_ ditching school, him being uncomfortable with admitting he had contacts, getting all weird when I asked how he'd gotten to me so fast, his adopted dad getting all weird when I mentioned that his son had saved me from a near crushing incident. This was all very curious and I needed to figure out what the hell was going on.

Once I'd gotten my clothes returned and I had changed, I found my dad waiting outside my door, waiting to escort me out. He seemed to think that I couldn't walk to the car without getting hit by another van but I obliged him. I followed him out into a hall that led to another wing and would take us past the lobby without being seen by rabid school worriers when he stopped and turned to me.

"I gotta go sign some paperwork real quick. You should probably call you mom,"

Dread suddenly washed over me as I saw his guilty face. "Did you tell her?"

The look I received told me he had.

"She's probably just freaking out," I groaned, looking down at my phone to see five voice messages and twelve texts. I walked along down the hall, staring down at my phone, reading the various hysterical texts until I heard familiar voices around the corner.

"… _fifteen kids that saw what happened_," said a male with a country accent… possible Jasper.

"_What was I supposed to do? Let her die_?" Edward.

"_This isn' just about you. It's about all of us_," Definitely Jasper.

"_I think we should take this in my office_," Dr. Cullen.

I glanced around the corner and watched as they suddenly all looked over at me at the exact same time. It creeped me out but my face lit up with embarrassment regardless as I gave an awkward wave, not bothering to duck back around the corner like a dimwit. Dr. Cullen gave me a sympathetic look while Jasper seemed to look like he wanted to murder me, witnesses or no. Edward on the other hand just seemed tired as he looked over at me.

"Um… can I talk to you for a minute?"

Dr. Cullen pulled Jasper away as Edward reluctantly walked over to me. "_Yes_?"

I decided to get straight to the point. "Thank you for saving me-"

"You're welcome,"

"-but I have to ask. How did you get over to me so fast?"

Edward gave me an interested look that was laced with annoyance, as if he was looking down at a child who was insisting they'd seen a monster crawling under their bed. "I was standing right next to you, Andy,"

I frowned. "You were next to your car, across the parking lot. I know because I distinctly remember thinking that you were leaning against your rich-boy car,"

"Rich-boy car?" Edward repeated with amusement.

"Yes and there is no way you'd be able to make it over to me in time,"

Edward sighed. "You hit your head. You must be confused,"

"No, I'm not," I said, almost feeling the need to stomp my foot. I didn't. "I _know_ what I saw,"

"And what exactly was that?"

I glared at him. He was trying to get me to saw it out loud so that I would realize what I was saying sounded completely bonkers. I let out a long breath through my nose, my hands curling into fists in annoyance and frustration. I wasn't backing down though.

"You, Edward Cullen, were across the parking lot, leaning against your silver Volvo. I, Clarinda Hillary Swan, smiled at you before I leaned over to pick up my fallen black MP3 player. Then Tyler Crowley's van nearly crushed me but _you_ somehow appeared next to me and saved me from becoming an Andy sandwich. You pushed the van away with your hand,"

Edward scoffed. "That is crazy,"

"Then explain to me, without bringing my brain into it, how you could get over to me so fast and push a van away from me?"

"It's impossible,"

"Yes, it is," I nodded. "But it's also the truth,"

Edward stared at me for a long moment before he just shook his head. "No one is going to believe you,"

"What made you think I was going to go around telling people?"

The look of complete shock made me smile at him.

"Edward… what makes you think I'm going to run around like a chicken with my head cut off, telling everyone that you'd saved me in a near impossible way? All I want from you is the truth,"

His expression softened but he still didn't divulge anything.

Finally, the urge to stomp my foot became too much. "Edward Cullen, you tell me the truth right now or I'll smack you upside the head!"

To this Edward laughed, an actual laugh, something I had never heard before and I was left in a daze at how beautiful it was to listen to.

"Why did you even bother then?" I finally asked, my eyes growing moist in my frustration, making his laugh cut short and his eyes grow unexpectedly vulnerable. "You could have let me die! You could have let me die and it would have been the humane thing to do. It wouldn't have made much of a difference in my schedule. Now, in two months, at the end of the year- I'm dead anyway. Why did you bother if you aren't going to explain to me what the hell happened?"

He stared at me for a long moment, eyes moving from mine, to the tears on my cheeks and back again. He looked like a confused boy, hit heart in his throat as he tried desperately to think of something to say. And finally he did.

"I don't know,"

Then he walked away.

It took me a few minutes before I could actually move. I irritation took over as I viciously wiped at my cheeks, cussing to myself in as many languages as I knew; English, German, Gibberish, Tolkien Elfish, Latin, fake Latin.

And then I had to deal with Mom.

For the past few hours she'd been doing all types of worrying over me and was convinced that I'd died. I ended up having to convince her to let me stay with Dad and for her to stay on the road with Phil. Two hours later and she finally agreed.

That night Dad tried to cook and ended up handing me some mushy Ramen noodles. I didn't eat much of it though, just took a couple Vicodin from my hidden stash and went to bed. I hoped that the next day my head wouldn't throb so much and that I'd dream of something nice like swimming pools and Carl Urban. But instead I dreamt of Edward Cullen.


	5. Like Dorian Gray

**Chapter 5 – Like Dorian Gray**

* * *

><p>The next two days after the accident Edward wasn't at school and the following month he didn't talk to me, just plain refused to give more than a three word answer if I asked him anything. It stung a little but I soon got used to it and ignored him right back, much to my annoyance. If he wanted to go back on his handshake about not being an asshole then that was fine with me.<p>

By the end of the month I came to learn that a Sadie Hawkins dance was coming up and all of the school was aflutter with anticipation for it. And apparently in Forks, it didn't matter if a Sadie Hawkins dance meant _girls_ asked _guys_.

"So…" Mike began awkwardly, after walking me to Biology from lunch. He'd followed me all the way to my desk and was now looking down at my desktop as his ears began to turn pink. "Jessica asked me to the dance,"

"That's great," I smiled unsuspectingly. "You'll have a lot of fun with Jessica,"

"Well…" he began guiltily. "I told her I had to think about it,"

"Why would you do that?"

He looked up at me beneath his lashes, a smile on his face. "I was wondering if you might be planning to ask me,"

Dread, _really_ big dread. "Mike, I think you should tell her yes,"

"Did you already ask someone?" he asked as his eyes flickered up to look at the asshole sitting behind me before he looked down at my desk again.

"No," I assured him. "I'm not going to the dance at all,"

His head snapped up and he gave me a shocked look. "Why not?"

Think fast. "I'm going to Seattle that Saturday," _Yes!_

"Can't you go some other weekend?"

"Sorry, no," I told him, before I smiled. "So you shouldn't make Jessica wait any longer. You might give her an aneurism or something… plus, it's rude,"

"Yeah, you're right," he sighed, walking away like a little puppy with its tail between its legs.

I turned back around to find Edward staring at me, looking completely and utterly shocked for no reason. I gave him a questioning look before he looked away again, making me extremely irritated as Mr. Molina came into the room and began the lesson. After Mr. Molina had finished his lecture he handed each of us a worksheet and gave us a page number. I went to work on it and was five questions into it before a velvety voice broke my concentration.

"_What's in Seattle_?"

I snorted, dropping my pencil roughly onto my worksheet, turning to give him an annoyed look, my hands gripping the table to keep from flailing. "What? You're speaking to me now? You don't answer any of my questions, you don't talk to me for a _month_… you don't even say hi to me,"

There was a long silence between us as I turned away from him and read the next question on the worksheet.

"_Hi_,"

I wanted to either laugh or smack him. I was inclined toward the later. "Are you going to tell me how you stopped the van?"

"… Yeah. I had an adrenaline rush. It's very common. You can Google it,"

I scoffed at that and turned and gave him a look that he returned with one that told me he was expecting an answer from me now. "Are you trying to tell me that you are a eighty-year-old woman lifting a man above her head because she believed she was possessed by an angel?"

"No. I'm saying I am a teenage boy who had an adrenaline rush that caused me to save a teenage girl from being crushed by a van,"

I let out a breath through my nose loudly. "Fine. If you don't want to tell me… I'll tell you what's in Seattle," I leaned about an inch closer to him and whispered. "Washingtonians are in Seattle,"

He stared at me for a long moment as if I was crazy before he shook his head and looked away from me. "You are so-"

"What?"

"Irritating,"

I smiled. "Good. I've been practicing,"

I turned away and back down at my worksheet.

"Look, I'm sorry I'm being rude all the time, Andy but… We shouldn't be friends,"

"You _really_ should have figured that out a little earlier," I said, sarcasm oozing out of my mouth before I practically slammed my pencil down. "Why didn't you just let the van crush me and save yourself all of this regret?"

"You think I regret saving you?"

"No shit, Sherlock," I exclaimed, glaring at him. "It couldn't be more obvious if you ran me over with your own car!"

I took a breath, glaring down at the table because I refused to look at him.

"You should have just let Tyler's van just crush me," I spat out the volume and anger in my voice fading as the words continued. "Do you know what it's like to know almost exactly when you are going to die and not be able to do anything about it? I could have died from that car accident and had it all over with but then you save me for no reason and then hate me for it. I hate that you've saved me from an early death and now hate me for it when I should be hating you for not letting me just die-"

Luckily for me the bell rang. I immediately shoved all of my things into my backpack and ran out of the classroom, headed to my next class, determined not to cry.

By the end of the day I had to turn down both Eric and Tyler when they both decided to ask me to the dance. I, like with Mike, didn't have the heart to tell them flat out 'no' so I told them my Seattle story. Now I was almost inclined to actually go to Seattle. Maybe I could get some new clothes, new books, some new comic books.

A week later I was ignoring Edward fervently when Jessica poked me in the side. We were standing in the lunch line and I nearly jumped three feet into the air, almost sending my lemonade can and grapes hurtling to the floor. I turned and glared at her but stopped when I found her looking over her shoulder. She was wide eyed and had the beginnings of a smirk on her face.

"_Yes_?"

"Edward Cullen is staring at you again… I wonder why he's sitting alone today,"

At that, I snapped my head around to look at him. I found him sitting by himself in the corner of the lunch room, looking directly at me with a smirk on his face as he gestured for me to come to him. I jerked my eyes away and glared down at my lunch tray.

"Does he mean you?"

I shrugged as I typed in my number and thanked the lunch lady. "Maybe he needs help with his Biology homework?" I suggested, though I knew that we didn't have any homework in Biology. "Or maybe he was actually looking at you?"

Jessica snorted. "Funny. He was staring at _you_,"

I groaned. "Then I'd better go see what he wants,"

I left Jessica at our usually table before heading over to Edward, ducking around students and stepping over backpacks. Once I finally arrived at his table, I was standing on the opposite side of the table, my hip cocked to the side and eyebrow raised.

"Yes, your highness?"

Edward chuckled at that before he gestured to the seat in front of me. "Why don't you with me today?"

I watched him for a moment to see if he was serious. He was. My heart clenched and my face started to turn red at the thought of sitting with this boy all by myself. I turned and looked back at my usual table for something, _anything_ that would tell me what to do in this situation. My eyes caught on Mike and Eric as they quickly jerked their heads back around while Jessica and Angela watched me out of the corner of their eyes. I turned back to Edward to find him smiling kindly at me, not at all like the expressions I'd been getting as of late.

I sighed and plopped down into the seat. "This is…" I wanted to say weird but I figured that would be a little rude. "No, this is weird,"

"Well, I decided that I'm done trying to stay away from you," he said, with a nonchalant shrug, glancing off over my right shoulder at a different table. "I don't have the strength,"

"So are you done being a menstruating girl?" I asked seriously despite my use of words.

"Yes… but if you were smart, you'd stay away from me,"

I couldn't help but smile. "Then let's say- for arguments sake- I'm not smart… Can we try going back to being friends?"

"That sounds about right,"

I smiled at him before I popped a grape into my mouth and turned my attention his hands. They were nervously playing with his watch, turning the knob on the side and running the pad of his thumb over the glass. The thought of his hands made me think of the near car accident and the hand print dents on the side of the van. He couldn't be human to have made a dent in that van. To push the van away he could have had an adrenaline rush but to have made dents like that? No. But thinking of him as something otherworldly or supernatural almost seemed out of the question… _almost_.

"What are you thinking?"

He'd stopped playing with his watch by now and as I looked up at him in surprise, I found him staring at me curiously, a bit frustrated coloring his golden eyes.

"I'm trying to figure out what you are," I told him honestly.

To this, his jaw tightened and he held onto his smile with an iron grip. "Are you having any luck with that?"

"Not too much,"

"What are your theories?"

I scrunched my nose and shook my head, letting my purple hair put some extra emphasis on my _no_ as it flipped around my head. It was much too embarrassing to admit the thoughts that had been entertained in my head, especially with someone as serious as Edward Cullen.

"Won't you tell me?"

I frowned. "You'll laugh at me,"

"I promise not to," he said, leaning toward me, giving me the most sincere look a person could ever give, making me feel like I was letting Jack the Ripper into my house. With a smirk, I shook my head, getting him to groan. "You're really irritating, you know that?"

I smiled. "Good. I've been practicing,"

Then his eyes caught on something directly over my shoulder that made him look away and smile a very handsome and sarcastic smile. "I think your friends are angry with me for stealing you,"

I smiled at that and shrugged, taking a sip of lemonade. "They'll survive,"

"I may not give you back, though," he said, turning his eyes back on me as I felt a shiver go down my spine. "You look worried,"

"No," I shook my head. "Just surprised,"

There was a long moment of silence as I finished off my grapes and sat my chin in my hand, watching Edward watch me.

"Just one theory?" he tried innocently.

I laughed loudly before covering my mouth as a red blush cover my cheeks. I watched him as I removed my hand and gave him a Cheshire smile. "No laughing?"

He shook his head.

I looked around the room before leaning forward and indicating for him to do the same. When I decided we were close enough I began telling him my half assed theories. "I've considered radioactive spiders and kryptonite,"

"That doesn't seem very creative," he said with a smirk as he leaned back in his seat again.

"What do you expect from the girl in the Iron Man shirt?" I asked as I also sat back, pulling at my bright red t-shirt that was fashioned to look like I was wearing part of the suit.

"But that's all superhero stuff. What if I'm not the hero?" he asked, seeming completely serious as his eyes grew sad. "What if I'm the bad guy?"

"You're not," I told him instantly before I rectified my statement. "… Unless you're the Loki type, which I highly doubt. Otherwise I'd have to go with my first guess," I told him as he looked up at me, apparently surprised that I had more guesses. "I think you have a cursed painting of yourself hidden in your attic. Like Dorian Gray you've had bad things happen to you. That's all,"

He gave me a somewhat grateful smile as the bell rang. We stood, tossing out lunches into the nearest garbage before the two of us headed to class together.

"So…" he began as we sat down in our seats in Biology. "I was wondering if, a week from Saturday- you know, the day of the spring dance-"

"Are you trying to be funny?" I interrupted, thinking back to the three _no'_s I'd had to give three disappointed boys.

"Will you let me finish?" Edward bit out, looking at me with an amused expression. "I heard you say you were going to Seattle that day, and I was wondering if you wanted a ride,"

I stopped- literally stopped- and stared at him. "What?"

"Do you want a ride to Seattle?"

"With who?"

"Myself, obviously," he said, looking at me as if I was stupid.

"Why?" I asked, stunned.

"Well, I was planning to go to Seattle in the next few weeks and, to be honest, I'm not sure if you truck can make it,"

I felt a little offended and a little more than protective over my baby. "My truck works just fine, thank you very much for your concern,"

"But can your truck make it there on _one_ tank of gas?" Edward asked, trying to be a smart ass.

"I don't know. I'll have to see when_ I_ drive to Seattle," I told him with a smirk. "And I don't see how that is any of your business,"

"The environment is all of our concerns," he said before he squinted. "I'm not sure that was grammatically correct," Then he turned his attention back to me. "Will you allow me to drive you there so that we can cut down on global warming?"

I glared at him for a long moment before I sighed. "Yes," Then I stuck my tongue out at him, turning away to start on my work. "Dumm Gas-effiziente Auto," I murmured, calling upon my two years of German class.

"Wie unhöflich," Edward murmured back.

I turned and stared in shock as he chuckled at his paper.


	6. No Fangs?

**Chapter 6 – No Fangs?**

* * *

><p>A week later there was an actual nice day in Forks, Washington… and Edward-<p>

"He's not here," Jessica suddenly told me from atop the picnic table I was sitting at. She was trying to get a tan during our thirty minute lunch break. "Whenever the weather's nice the Cullens disappear,"

"They just ditch?"

"No, Dr. and Mrs. Cullen yank them out for, like, hiking and camping and stuff. I tried that out on my parents. Not even close,"

After Angela asked Eric to the dance and Mike finally said yes to Jessica, the two of them suckered me into going along with them to Port Angeles to find the perfect dresses for the dance. It wasn't exactly my type of shopping but I agreed to go for something to do. We drove the hour there and arrived at the only dress shop which was stocked "full" of dresses. At first they insisted that I try on dresses with them so that I might find one for prom and be ahead of the game but I said no. With my track record, I'd probably never go to prom even if someone asked me or if someone forced me to go at gun point. So I acted as the man in our little group and held their purses as they tried dresses on and told them which ones looked the best on them.

But after an hour of that I decided to go find a book store.

I told them that I'd meet them at the restaurant we'd decided to go to for dinner and headed out, determined to find a book store. At first I had no luck, ending up in antique stores and gift shops that had self-help and newly released books. Finally, however, I found a small book store and dove right in, ending up sitting in a corner with a pile of books surrounding me as I flipped through them and decided on which one to get. I finally decided on two Patricia Briggs books- Patricia Briggs being my absolute favorite author- one of the _Mercy Thompson_ books I'd been missing from the series and one of her older fantasy book. I also grabbed a copy of _Interview with the Vampire_, deciding that it was about time that I actually read it instead of just watching it a million times.

That's when it hit me.

What stayed out of the sun (for various reasons considering the wide array of vampires), was beyond pale and beautiful, had super-speed and super-strength, would think they were the bad guy and couldn't get close to humans? What twisted soul from the book I was buying reminded me so much of my real Edward? The vampire, Louis.

EDWARD WAS A VAMPIRE!

… Okay, that sounded a lot better as an idea than in an actual sentence.

I shook my head, putting the thought of Edward being a vampire out of my mind as I stuck my new books into my oversized satchel-like bag. I left the book store to find that the sun had already gone down while I'd been inside. I cursed in five languages and looked around, not completely sure which way to go now that everything looked so different. I decided to go to the right and down the cement stairs only to find myself even more lost.

I was ready to turn back around when I glanced back and saw two guys looking at me, pushing off the wall they had been leaning against and started walking after me. My mind went through every single _Criminal Minds_ episode I had ever watched and my body immediately grew cold with fear and the adrenaline began to pump through my veins.

I turned a corner and ended up in an almost empty parking lot except for a bunch of guys laughing with beer cans in their hands. The laughing stopped when they saw me and their two friends coming around the corner.

"Hey, where you running to?"

"Oh, there she is,"

"Look what we just found,"

"What's up?"

"It's my girl!"

"How you doing?"

They all immediately swarmed me as I tried to shrink away, turning and backing up only to bump into another one of them as they all laughed, trying to grab at me. Fear was making me freeze up as I looked at their leering faces, making me wonder what horrible things would happen to be tonight if I didn't get away.

"Don't touch me," I said, my voice stronger than I actually felt as they all laughed at me.

"What's the problem?"

"She doesn't like that, man,"

"Hey, whoa, whoa, where you going?"

"Come get a drink with us,"

"Yeah, you should hang out with us,"

Suddenly arms wrapped around me, grabbing me in a way that I definitely didn't want to be touched, the arms pulling back towards a body suggestively. I screamed and slammed my heel into his foot, swinging my elbow back into his stomach as hard as I could. He let go immediately and the next one that came near me got a foot in the privates that sent them to the ground with a thud. At the sight of an opening in their tight circle I took off, only getting a few feet before one of them barreled into me, taking me to the ground. I hit the asphalt hard, barely having enough time to register the pain before I was flipped over, his weight coming down on my waist as he grabbed my wrists.

"Where you going? We just want to have some fun,"

"Get off me!"

That was when I heard the all too familiar sound of tires screeching across the pavement before a pair of headlight lit up the guy on top of me. The guy let go of my wrists, his eyes wide as the car came roaring towards us, off of me in an instant as he went stumbling back toward his buddies. Too late to get out of the way, I curled up and put my arms over my head in a weak attempt to protect myself last minute as the car screeched to a halt not far from my head.

The driver's side door opened and hands grabbed me, jerking me to my feet.

"Get in the car,"

I looked up to find Edward standing in front of me, his eyes focused on the group not far from us, anger making his grip on me a bit painful. I nodded dumbly, pulling away from him as I ran to the passenger side, climbing into the seat and slamming the door behind me.

The car sped off again, zooming down the back roads of Port Angeles, faster than when my mom first drove a Corvette, making me grip my seat and the handle above the window in a death grip. Then I looked over at Edward to find him completely tense, his white knuckles even whiter as the steering wheel seemed to creek under his intense grip. He looked like he was either going to kill someone or pull over and puke, but I was thinking he was leaning more toward the first one.

"Are you okay?" I asked tentatively.

"No," he growled out, the steering wheel creaking loudly. "Andy?"

"Yes?"

"Are _you_ okay?" he asked, sounding as if he was trying to be comforting even though he was pissed. I didn't find it very comforting at all, not with the car was barely making it around corners and my muscles were tensed up as I tried to hold on to my seat.

"Do you want me to lie or be honest?" I asked him, wincing as the car swerved again. "Because if I told you I was fine I'd probably be lying to you,"

There was a long moment of silence and a million different things went through my head all at once; I'd nearly been gang raped. I could have died. Edward had saved me. He could be a vampire. That idea is incredibly stupid. Could he be stalking me? I wanted Mom. Hell, I wanted Dad. I would never be able to watch _Criminal Minds_ again. I needed to put my seat belt on. Were Angela and Jessica okay? Was Edward wearing his seatbelt? Did he even _need_ a seatbelt?

"Distract me, please,"

I stopped and looked over at Edward to find him still tense. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Just prattle about something unimportant until I calm down,"

"Um…" I couldn't think about anything that would get his mind off of those creeps or wasn't related to him being a vampire until one random thought came into my head. "The first man I ever loved was Peter Parker… well technically it was Spider-Man but he's actually Peter Parker. The first time I saw him was in the animated TV series. I thought he was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen," I chuckled. "I made Phil call me Spider-Girl and paint my room red and blue. My mom even got me Spider-Man curtains for my windows and Spider-Man sheets. I ran around for a month saying that I was sleeping with Spider-Man with no idea what I was insinuating,"

I looked over at Edward to find him still tense, so I continued.

"Did you know that Mary Jane is not Spiderman's first love? He was in love with Gwen Stacy until the Green Goblin found out who Spidey was and threw her off the Brooklyn Bridge. Spiderman almost saved her but when his web caught her, the force of her suddenly stopping broke her neck,"

"That's horrible,"

"Yeah, but I think it's a better story than him being in love with Mary Jane. As much as I love the quote '_Face it, Tiger. You just hit the jackpot_,' I hate her with a burning passion,"

"Why?"

I shrugged even though I knew he couldn't see it. "I guess because no matter how much he did to be with her and how good he was it never seemed to be good enough for her and she ended up going off with someone else. I always thought that he deserved a girl that appreciated what a great guy he was and appreciated all of the good he did as Spiderman," I glanced over at Edward again to see that his knuckles were still extra white but the steering wheel was no long creaking. "Better?"

"Not really,"

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Sometimes I have a problem with my temper, Andy," he told me through clenched teeth. "But it wouldn't be helpful for me to turn around and hunt down those-" He let out another long breath through his nose. "At least that's what I'm trying to convince myself,"

"You're right, you shouldn't," I assured him.

"But you don't know the vile, repulsive things they were thinking," Edward suddenly exclaimed, getting riled up again as he slammed his hand into the steering wheel. If that thing were a person it'd probably be dead by now.

"And _you_ do?" I argued, eyeing him as the vampire theory came up again.

Edward stopped for a second, realizing his mistake. "It's not hard to guess,"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes before I saw that we were headed out of town. "Jessica and Angela will be worried. I was supposed to meet them,"

Instantly Edward did a U-turn and had us heading back into the city. Barely a minute later, we pulled up in front of the restaurant.

"How do you know where…?" I began before I realized that he was getting out of the car, walking around to open my door for me. "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you to dinner," he said as if it was obvious as he held out his hand to help me out of the car.

I raised an eyebrow at him as he looked over my shoulder and down the pier.

"Go stop Jessica and Angela before I have to track them down, too. I don't think I could restrain myself if I ran into your other friends again,"

I nodded to him before I jogged down the pier towards Jessica's car where I could see Jessica pacing as Angela held her phone to her ear.

"Jess! Angela!"

They both looked up, looking relieved as Angela got to put away her phone.

"Where were you? We left you messages," Jessica exclaimed, grabbing Angela's hand that still held her phone, holding it out as if it itself was proof. "We waited for you but we go hungry so… we…"

They stopped short and stared at something behind me, seem totally dumbstruck or star struck, mouths hanging open before they turned to girl smiles. I turned to see Edward standing behind me, hypnotizing him with his pearly whites and vampire powers.

"Um, I'm sorry I kept Andy from dinner," Edward apologized even though it wasn't his fault, putting them deeper under his spell. "We just sort of ran into each other and got talking,"

"Yeah. No. No, we totally understand," Jessica smiled as Angela just nodded dumbly. "I mean, that happens, right? We were…"

Edward switched to stand across from me as Jessica and Angela went to flank me, both of them waiting for me to say good night and come with them. But I wanted to stay.

"Yeah, we were just leaving. So…"

"Andy, if you wanna…"

"I think I should make sure Andy gets something to eat," Edward spoke up, his eyes on me as he gave me a shy smile. "If you'd like. I'll drive you home myself,"

"That's so thoughtful," Angela murmured, sounding wistful and wishful.

"It's really thoughtful. Yeah,"

I couldn't help the smile that came to my face, the smile fed by the adrenaline, Edward's attention, the girls in Romance Land on either side of me and the secret joke because of what he really was. All of it made me feel like I could burst out laughing.

"Yeah," I nodded. "I should eat something,"

"Yeah," Angela echoed, staring at Edward before she snapped out of it and smiled at me. "So, we'll see you tomorrow,"

I nodded to both of them and walked over to Edward, ignoring the 'Call me,' Jessica threw to me as I walked past her. Edward and I watched them leave, both of them waving to me eagerly until the disappeared down the road, leaving Edward and I alone.

"I'm actually not that hungry," I told him as we turned to each other.

Edward gave me a look as he walked past me, headed for the entrance of the restaurant before he yelled back; "Humor me,"

I rolled my eye and followed him inside, thanking him as he held the door open for me. Once inside we were greeted by a gothic styled Hostess whose eyes immediately went to Edward. Her eyes were taking every inch of him in in every sense of the word, which made me really uncomfortable and out of place.

"Just two?" she asked with a dreamy smile.

Edward nodded. "Yes, thank you,"

She nodded and led us to a table in the center of the quiet restaurant, keeping her eyes on Edward the whole time, even as she walked away, nearly running over a poor little kid. I chuckled and dropped my eyes to my seat as Edward pulled it out for me.

Once we were both seated our waiter rushed over to get our drinks for us, apparently gay by how goggly-eyed he got when he saw Edward for the first time. Edward then made me order some food, making me feel uncomfortable at the idea of making him pay for my dinner when he didn't even eat. However, he wouldn't stop insisting and once I finally ordered- the first thing I saw- he stopped bugging me about it.

"And what about you, sugah?"

Edward's eyes didn't leave me, trying to hold my gaze as I dropped it, speaking to the waiter without actually looking at him. "Nothing, thank you,"

Our waiter huffed and moved along, leaving me to look over at Edward as he continued to watch me. I felt uncomfortable under his gaze and a little uncomfortable at the idea that I would have uninterrupted time with him without having to worry about a bell to interrupt us. As nice as that could potentially be it also meant that if I said something stupid I had to deal with it for at least an hour until Edward finally got me home before I could smack myself for being stupid.

"_Yes_?"

I was happy to catch Edward off guard, watching him turn away, the side of his mouth twitching with a smile. "Sorry. I'm just waiting for you to burst into tears or something,"

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"Usually people would have gone into shock by now,"

"Oh. Well, I think you scared away the tears with your driving," I told him with a smirk before other things came to mind. "You know, it'd be nice if you'd give me some answers,"

Edward shined a sarcastic smile at me. "Yes. No. To get to the other side. 1.77452-"

"I don't want to know the square root of pie," I interrupted him. "Math is something that I only do in a clean classroom and I feel dirty afterwards,"

To this Edward chuckled.

"How did you know where I was?"

"I didn't," he said instantly.

I rolled my eyes, irritated. "Do you know how many miles it is back to Forks?" I asked as I grabbed my purse/satchel and started getting up.

"Don't leave," Edward pleaded, reaching out as if to pull me back into my seat but stopped his hand before he touched me. He put his hand back beneath the table and he eyes dropped, looking like a boy who'd done something bad and was waiting to be punished.

I sighed and sat back down, hoping for some real answers.

"Did you follow me?" I tried, feeling a little weird asking that of a seventeen-year-old… even if he was potentially a bloodsucking immortal.

"I feel very protective of you," Edward finally said, deciding that giving me answers was a smarter idea than having me walk back home. "I was trying to keep my distance unless you needed my help and then I heard what those low-lives were thinking-"

"Wait," Immediately Edward seemed to realize what he said and sat back a little, quieting down again. "You say you _heard_ what they were _thinking_?"

He remained quiet, shifting uncomfortably.

"So what? …You read minds?"

The two of us held eye contact until Edward finally broke, sighing as he leaned forward. "I can read every mind in this room… apart from yours," he said, gesturing to people discreetly as he told me what they were thinking. "There's money, sex, her child at home, sex, his boyfriend, going to the store for milk, cat," At that, I couldn't help but snort out a laugh. "But from you… nothing. It's very frustrating,"

I smiled at him and sitting back in my chair. "Well I don't have to ask you if there's something wrong with me,"

Edward chuckled and shook his head. "I can read minds and you think there's something wrong with you?"

I rolled my eye at him and I smiled. "I have a tumor, remember? There is literally something wrong me with me,"

"Oh,"

My smile grew as I looked around the restaurant, acting as if I was making sure no one was listening to catching his interest. I turned back to him and leaned in close, using a finger to gesture for him to come even closer. Once he was close enough, I said; "Well, I'll let you in on a secret. I'm typically paying attention to whoever is talking to me and otherwise I'm thinking about superheroes,"

Edward's eyebrow arched upward. "Superheroes?"

I nodded. "Superheroes,"

"Interesting," he smiled as he leaned back, allowing the waiter I hadn't noticed arrived to put my plate down in front of me.

The waiter turned and smiled down at Edward. "Ya sure you don' want anythin, sugah?"

"Nothing, thank you," Edward repeated, much to the waiter's annoyance.

"Just tell me if you do," Then he looked down at me and grinned as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. "If I were you, honey, I'd eat that up in every sense of the word,"

I looked over at Edward and blushed brightly before the waiter pulled away grinning and left.

"You heard that?" I asked.

The side of Edward's mouth twitched upward. "I got the gist,"

My blush got much brighter and I turned to take a drink of my water, trying very hard to ignore everyone in the world. I took a few bites of my dinner and realized how hungry I was. The mushroom ravioli really was very good but I finally decided the company was much better.

"So how does it work?" I finally asked, not wanting to be awkward anymore. "Can the rest of your family read people's minds like you can?"

"No. Reading minds is just me," he told me as I took another bit of ravioli. "Jasper can affect the emotions of people around him and Alice can see the future,"

I smiled. "I bet she saw me coming a mile off,"

Edward suddenly tensed and turned away from me. "Alice's visions are subjective. The future can always change,"

Even though the reaction to what I'd said was beyond odd, I nodded in agreement. I was sure I'd find out that that had meant eventually but for now I let it go. I was almost full and done with my dinner when Edward spoke up again.

"Do you have any new theories now?" Edward asked, getting me to look at him as I finished off the ravioli in my mouth.

I tilted my head. "I have two. One of them I have more confidence in,"

He arched a brow at me. "Oh?"

"The first is a mutant,"

"No,"

"Then I know what you are," I smiled, earning a surprised and uncomfortable look. "Let's just say that I got the idea from Lestat and Louis,"

Edward reluctantly nodded at me as I took a sip of water, leaning back in his chair. "And you'd be right… at least about what I am,"

"It's not the same with you?"

He chuckled. "No,"

"What about burning in direct sunlight?"

"Myth,"

"Coffins?"

"Myth," he repeated before he smiled a little. "I actually don't need to sleep,"

"At all?"

When he shook my head I smiled, imagining being able to stay up all night and not have to cut off your day with sleep. But then again you'd never be able to dream at all, which was something I always found enjoyable.

I continued. "Wooden stakes?"

"Myth,"

"Silver stakes,"

"Myth, again,"

"Crosses?"

"Myth,"

"Not appearing on film?"

"Myth,"

"Not appearing in mirrors?"

"Myth,"

"Trading blood to change someone?"

"Myth,"

"Do you have fangs?"

"Myth. We just have really sharp teeth,"

I stared at him with my jaw in my lap until he glanced over at me. "What the hell kind of vampire are you?" I asked, getting a chuckle out of him.

After a few minutes we got the check, much to the disappointment of our waiter who probably hoped that Edward would want to go home with _him_. I thanked the waiter as Edward led me out to his car, opening my door for me like a gentlemen. We began the drive back to Forks in silence but apparently we weren't finished with our conversation yet.

"Aren't you going to ask me the most important question?" Edward asked.

"Which would be?"

"Diet,"

An involuntary shiver went down my spine. "Well, considering how you talk I would assume that you are like Louis and drink the blood of animals… or else you're like Lestat and you're just luring me out into the middle of nowhere to suck my veins dry,"

I didn't get a chuckle for that joke but Edward did answer my unspoken question. "Yes, we drink from animals. But it's like humans eating tofu; it keeps you strong but you're never fully satisfied,"

I nodded, excepting this as truth as I sat back in my seat, relaxing a little bit as the heat pouring out of the heaters soaked into my skin. I was sure that the only reason I wasn't falling asleep was because of the strange boy in the car.

"When I first met you, I hated you," Edward suddenly told me, not seeming to hold back much as his voice dropped. "The scent of your blood drove me insane; as if you were a demon conjured specifically to torment me. The call was impossible to resist… but I did it,"

"That was why you were gone that first week,"

He nodded even though it wasn't a question.

"And now?" I asked, curious to see where this was going.

"Then, the more time I spent with you, just the thought of you being in pain or in danger was intolerable. I could never harm you, nor let you come to harm. I tried to avoid you… you can't know how hard I've tried," he said as he smiled over at me before his eyes grew serious and he turned back to the road. "But it was impossible to stay away from you. You've become a friend like I've never had before, one that it would do me pain to lose,"

I blushed against my will, dropping my eyes to my lap.

"I want you to know everything and I want to know everything about you,"

"That might take a while, especially on your end," I told him.

"I've got time," he told me with a mischievous grin.

I gave him a smile that I knew didn't reach my eyes. "Well, you're the only one, hun,"


	7. Interview With The Vampire

**Chapter 7 – Interview With The Vampire**** (Includes the iconic Meadow scene)**

* * *

><p>The next day I couldn't believe what had happened. It was crazy to think that one of my new best guy friends really was a vampire. I was about ready to tell myself that it had all been a dream, heading out my door to go to school when I was met with a body of proof standing next to his Volvo. In my driveway was none other than Edward Cullen, insistent that I ride to school with him so that we could get extra time to get to be with each other and talk.<p>

Needless to say, the next school week made sure that I soaked up the fact that Edward was a vampire. The next week, Edward drove me to and from school, walked me to each of my classes, sat with me at lunch and conversed with me in Biology whenever Mr. Molina wasn't lecturing. By the end of the week I had a sore throat from talking so much, having to endlessly tell him about myself, but it had also earned me a plethora of knowledge about Edward and his being a vampire. This whole week also earned me a few strange looks from my schoolmates and a few glares from my friends.

By the end of the week, Edward reminded me that I had been planning to go with him to Seattle, which was truthfully a total lie to get myself out of three prom dates. Edward, of course, knew this and asked if we could do something else on that day. He wanted to show me a few things and be able to talk to me besides in the comfort of his Volvo.

"So are you asking me on a date?" I asked with a grin, getting a shocked looking from him. I chuckled at him and shook my head, trying not to wince when my head throbbed with the headache I'd been dealing with all that day. "Just kidding, silly. We'll just be a couple of friends talking about vampirism in modern culture and your lack of fangs,"

That Friday ended up being especially exciting for me. Not only was it the end of the week, but it was the day before I got to spend time alone with Edward and not have to ask questions during a five minute car ride or have to whisper them to him at school.

I walked out the door in a pair of yoga pants- I said I wore them because they were cute but I knew better than that, they were just comfy- and one of my favorite Spider-Man shirts along with a thick sweater and a pair of fake glasses, pretending to be _Patella_ Parker. I smiled as I moved to where Edward held the passenger side door open for me.

"How did you sleep?" he asked.

"Perfectly," I smiled, taking the door from him, leaning against it so that I was leaning closer to him as I tilted my head. "Although that dream about Aragorn from Lord of the Rings was interesting,"

Edward just chuckled.

"And how was your night?" I asked politely.

"Pleasant," His smile was amused; I felt like I was missing an inside joke.

"Can I ask what you did?"

"No. Today is still _mine_," he smirked as he walked around to the other side of his Volvo and got in. I groaned in utter annoyance before I sat in my seat and closed the door. That was something that he did constantly. Any question I asked had to be on "my day", which wasn't often. Not that it really mattered because we both managed to work our own questions in on the other person's day anyway.

"So you never met anyone you wanted?" Edward asked me later on when we were sitting together at lunch.

"Eh," I shrugged, leaning back as I took a bite of my chocolate chip cookie, the first good cookie I've ever had from a school cafeteria. "I had crushes galore and a few boyfriends but no one amazing that I just couldn't get enough of. At least, not in Phoenix," I shrugged. "Not to mention I think dating is sort of pointless when I'm never getting married,"

"Why?"

I stared at him as if he were an idiot. "One…" I pointed at my head, indicating the tumor that was growing there. "And two, I figure that getting married is like… getting a cat; they seem like a good idea at first but then one day they leave you and go find another person to cuddle with and mooch off of,"

Edward watched me for a moment as he took this in before he looked over my right shoulder and sighed. "I should have let you drive yourself today,"

"Why?"

"I'm leaving with Alice after lunch," he told me, looking back to me with dark caramel eyes.

That was something I had noticed over our time as friends. Whenever his eyes grew darker it meant that he hadn't eaten in a while which typically made him a bit cranky. But when his eyes were solid gold he was always in a good mood and had probably eaten recently.

"That's okay," I told him, waving my hand dismissively. "It's not that far of a walk,"

"I'm not going to make you walk home," Edward chuckled at me, as if what I was saying had been silly of me to think of. "We'll go get your truck and leave it here for you,"

"I don't have my key with me," I told him.

Though I enjoyed the idea of Edward pulling his hair out as he tried to find my truck key while I equally hated the idea of having to do actual exercise, I figured it would be creepy to have my truck suddenly appear out of nowhere… and I probably _needed_ the exercise.

"I really don't mind walking,"

"Your truck will be here, and the key will be in the ignition- unless you're afraid someone might steal it," Edward told me, the last part with a smirk.

"No," I told him firmly. "Being impressive is buying me my favorite book to show that you've been listening to my ramblings, not breaking into my house, magically finding my car keys and driving it down here. Whoever told you that was playing a cruel joke," I told him, taking a sip of my lemonade before I eyed him. "Don't bring me my car,"

Edward stared at me for a long moment, looking surprised before he nodded. "All right,"

I nodded before I let a smile light my face again. "So where are you going?"

"Hunting," he told me easily. "If I'm going to be alone with you tomorrow, I'm going to take whatever precautions I can," Then an evil and guilty look flashed across his face. "You can always cancel, you know,"

"Funny, very funny," I muttered sarcastically. "What time will I see you tomorrow?"

Edward gave me a mock-glare. "That depends… it's Saturday; don't you want to sleep in?"

I shrugged. "Yes, I do but I know I won't. If I think about having to do something important the next day I always end up waking up five hours earlier. Quite annoying, let me tell you,"

"How about at ten, then?" he asked, to which I nodded. "Will Charlie be there?"

"No, he's fishing tomorrow," I told him, taking another drink of my nearly empty lemonade can.

"And if you don't come home, what will he think?"

"I have no idea," I told him honestly. "He'll probably think that I decided to fulfill my life-long dream to swim with the dolphins and went to find some,"

At first Edward had looked serious but with that comment I'd managed to yank a chuckle out of him, much to his annoyance.

"What are you hunting tonight?" I asked curiously.

"Whatever we find in the park. We aren't going far,"

I stuck out my bottom lip and tried to do a sad face.

"What?" he asked confused.

"No squirrels, please. That's just cruel,"

He rolled his eyes at me.

"Why are you going with Alice?"

"Alice is the most…" he looked up at the ceiling as if the word he was looking for had been printed there. "Supportive,"

"And the others? What are they?" I asked, glancing over my right shoulder at the table of vampires, all much too gorgeous for their own good.

"Incredulous, for the most part,"

"So they don't like me," I smiled, glancing back at Edward out of the corner of my eye.

"That's not it," he assured me. "They don't understand why I can't leave you alone,"

"Neither do I for that matter," I told him, looking back at the table of vampires to find Jasper staring at me, making me turn away as fast as I could.

"I told you. You're not like anyone I've ever known. Having the advantages I do, I have a better than average grasp of human nature. People are predictable. But you… you never do what I expect,"

"I know that people are predictable for a fact," I agreed. "But I highly doubt that I do that much that's out of the ordinary,"

"Tell me, Andy," he said, leaning toward me over the table. "Who do you know that thinks of superheroes on a daily basis or spouts facts from _Criminal Minds_?" To this, I had no answer, except maybe my mom to the last part. "You always take me by surprise. You fascinate me,"

"Frogs fascinate me," I interrupted, saying it in monotone.

"A person can be fascinating," Edward argued. "And you don't see yourself clearly,"

"Of course I don't," I murmured, rolling my eyes.

Suddenly Alice- the only girl of the vampire group with the short inky hair- popped up behind him, giving me a smile before she looked down at him. I remembered when I was little that I had wanted to look like a pixie with short dark hair… apparently she ended up with my wish.

"Alice, Andy- Andy, Alice," Edward said without having to look back and see she was there, looking a whole new level of annoyed as he gesture between us.

"Hello, Andy," Alice smiled sweetly. "It's nice to _finally_ meet you,"

That annoyed Edward.

"Hi, Alice," I grinned, giving her an awkward wave. "It's a pleasure to meet you too,"

Alice nodded before she looked down at Edward. "Are you ready?"

"Nearly. I'll meet you at the car," he told her before she nodded and skipped away and out the cafeteria door toward the parking lot.

I looked back to Edward. "Should I say _have fun_ or is that the wrong phrase to use?"

"No. _Have fun_ works as well as anything," Edward shrugged as he stood.

"Have fun, then,"

"I'll try," Edward nodded. "And you try to be safe, please,"

"Safe in Forks- what a challenge," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'll make sure to stop by the tavern and start a couple of bar fights with some mountain men,"

"Promise to be safe," Edward repeated with a sigh, seeming annoyed with my jokes when he was trying to be so serious.

"No," I told him firmly. "Only if you promise to not eat any squirrels or chipmunks,"

Edward rolled his eyes before the crooked smile he often sported appeared on his face and he nodded. "Promise,"

"Fine then, I promise," I told him as the lunch bell rang. "I'll see you tomorrow,"

"I'll be there in the morning,"

After school and a very irritating interrogation from Mike Newton, I walked out of school and smiled when I didn't see my car in the parking lot. Let me tell you, if it had been there I would have been extremely creeped out. So I walked home, my legs not thanking me when I had to walk the several blocks with a heavy backpack and a great deal of car exhaust. That night I did all of my homework that I could possibly do, made dinner for Dad and then went into my room to do as much writing as I could possibly do until midnight when I finally went to bed, setting my alarm for eight o'clock.

I slept easily and woke up annoyed at the bird outside my window until I realized that it was my alarm. I turned it off and went to take a shower before I changed into several different outfits until I finally decided on a pair of my favorite jeans and my Joker t-shirt. I pulled my purple hair up into a high ponytail before I packed my oversized Marvel purse for my day away from home. Inside went my wallet, phone, sunglasses, tissues, small water bottle, Tylenol to-go bottle, notepad and pen. This was everything I would possibly need… although I doubted any of that would help me if he decided to bite me, except maybe the tissues for the first minute and a half of bleeding out.

I didn't really have to wait long before the doorbell rang, sounding the arrival of the one vampire that decided to use the door. I slipped into my shoes and grabbed my coat as I headed down the stairs to find Edward standing at the door. He was grinning at me and told me that I better be ready for some more exercise, immediately making me blush as May's perverted voice floated through my head. He led me out to his Volvo and drove me to the outskirts of town, parking outside a line of forest just off of the highway, leading me on a hike through the woods.

"Are we there yet?"

"No,"

"… How about now?"

"No,"

"Now?"

"No,"

"And now?"

"No," Edward sighed, chuckling. "And in case you wanted to ask; no, we aren't there yet,"

I smiled at him and ducked under a tree branch. We'd been walking through the woods for the past hour and only now was I beginning to feel the effect it was having on my calves. I soon realized that it was worth it when I stumbled out into a random meadow, something so beautiful and perfect that you'd only ever see in a movie or read in a book. I almost wanted to step back into the woods so that I wouldn't walk around and ruin it.

I turned back around to find Edward but found that he wasn't there anymore, having disappeared. I sighed in annoyance and rested my hands on my waist as I cocked a hip, my Batman bag hitting my butt.

"If you were going to leave me out in the middle of the woods you could have at leave carried me out here," I called out, getting a chuckle in return. I turned around and could Edward directly behind me but along the outside of the meadow, hidden under the cover of the trees, watching me.

"Remember how I said something else happens to real vampires when they go out in the sun?" he asked me, looking shy and embarrassed. "That was what I wanted to show you here,"

Now that he brought it up I realized that actual sunlight was filling the meadow, not the gloomy light that usually managed to make it through the thick clouds in Forks. I smiled at the idea of actually getting to see something vampire-like other than his eyes changing color. What could possibly happen when he walked out into the sun that was so different from vampires in legends, books and movies? I watched him with an excited grin on my face.

Edward seemed to take a deep breath and stepped out into the bright glow of the midday sun.

Edward in the sunlight was shocking, if I were to say it politely. Him sparkling like a diamond ring was certainly not what I expected. Laughter filled the meadow as I watched Edward sparkle in the sunlight, my eyes tearing up as I braced myself against my knees as I bent over. Finally when I felt like I'd laughed enough, I covered my mouth and straightened looking at him through watery eyes.

He didn't look amused. "I don't scare you?"

"No more than usual," I chuckled. "In fact, if I didn't find you so silly I'd probably say that you look very fascinating… very pretty,"

"Pretty?" Edward scoffed, looking away from me, his temper visibly flaring. "This is the skin of a killer, Andy,"

I couldn't help the laugh that came out of my mouth. "Only a killer of girly-girl humans who like sparkly things. Any animal prey would just laugh at you,"

"I'm a killer, Andy," he growled angrily, looking at me again, anger the most dominate emotion in his eyes. "I'm the world's best predator. Everything about me invites you in; my voice, my face, even my smell. As if I would need any of that,"

He was suddenly gone in a blur, making me gasp in surprise before I looked around, finally spotting him in the tree line again, off to my right.

"_As if you could outrun me!_" he laughed bitterly, his eyes on me. "_As if you could fight me off_!"

He reached up and ripped a huge branch off a poor innocent tree, sending it shaking in the aftermath before he swung the branch against it, breaking it in half. Then he was in front of me again, wrenching a gasp from me as I stumbled back a step in surprise. I winced as my head suddenly began to throb in time with my fast beating heart, a hand coming up to put pressure against my forehead in an effort to get the throbbing to stop, my eyes pinched shut. I slowly stumbled backward until I was sitting down in the tall grass, trying to slow my breathing down when I realized that I'd started hyperventilating during Edward's show. I felt him kneel down in front of me, feeling a hand hovering over my shoulder even though I couldn't see it.

All of this was a little much for me to handle at once.

"Please forgive me," he said miserably as I pulled my hand away from my eyes. I squinted up at his sparkly form to find his eyes on the ground between us. "I _can_ control myself, you just caught me off guard. But I'm on my best behavior now,"

I didn't say anything right away. First, I pulled out the small Tylenol to-go bottle from my bag and water bottle before downing four of the pills, figuring going two over the recommended dose wouldn't hurt too much. I then pulled out my trusty sunglasses and put them on before I turned back to him to find him watching me guiltily.

"I'm not afraid of you," I told him seriously. "But the next time you chose to try, come at me as if you are about to bite me with those dull fangless teeth of yours. That'd be painful,"

My try at a joke didn't change his somber expression.

"Please don't be afraid," he said in a soft voice. "I promise… No, I _swear_ not to hurt you,"

I nodded at him before I looked him over through my dark lenses to find him still sparkling like a little girl's '_Seven Years Of Rockin_' t-shirt, but it somehow- much to my surprise- managed to be beautiful despite what one would think. It was like looking at a giant diamond or one of those rocks that gift stores by the ocean try to sell you. Carefully, I reached out to take his hand, to see if his skin felt as strange as it looked.

I stopped before I reached him, looking up at him for permission. "Do you mind?" I asked, guessing that having a blood bag being rubbed across your skin probably didn't feel the greatest on one's throat.

"No, go ahead,"

He lifted his hand and I gently took it in both of mine, running my fingertips across his palm, bending my face down as close as I dared to get a better look at how his skin shined. I couldn't see exactly how but I assumed that it had something to do with the phrase "frozen in time" or maybe because a vampire's body crystalizes instead of dies when they are turned. I ran my fingertips over his skin again, marveling at the diamond-like appearance and the smooth texture and how cold his hand was compared to mine, far colder than May's had ever been.

When he chuckled I looked up at him to see his eyes closed, his face serene. "You can't imagine how that feels,"

I chuckled at him before I continued the exploration of his hand, wondering what the hell he could be thinking or feeling as I raped his hand.

"Tell me what you're thinking," he suddenly demanded, making me look up at him to see him watching me. "It's still so strange for me, not knowing,"

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to his hand. "You know, the rest of us feel that way _all_ the time,"

"It's a hard life," Edward nodded, as if he understood, making me roll my eyes and him again as I scoffed. "But you still didn't tell me what you were thinking,"

I turned mischievous eyes up to him and smirked.

"Superheroes,"

The rest of the day was spent in the meadow like that, my playing with his ice cold hand and him answering any questions I had; "So how long have you been a vampire?" "What was it like? Becoming a vampire?" "Can you smell fear, like werewolves in the Patricia Briggs books?" "Are there other supernatural creatures out there?" "Do vampires go to the bathroom?" "Do you take showers?" "Do you sweat?" "Can you see in the dark?" "Do you have super hearing?" "Does everything you touch feel extremely warm?" "So is Carlisle the reason you don't kill people?" "Did Carlisle make all of your family?" "Has it been weird to have to change with the times?" "What's your actual name? The name you're parents gave you?" "Do you miss your human family?" "Did you have a girlfriend before you were turned into a vampire?" "Are you a hundred and elven year old virgin?" "Are there any foods you miss?" "Are there animals you prefer to eat more than others?" "What's your body count? You can't expect me to believe you've never fallen off the band wagon," "Are there vampire elders?" "What exactly do the Volturi do?" "Where did vampirism start?" "Does ever vampire have a special power?"

By the time I'd ran out of questions, the sun began to head down toward the horizon, telling us that it was sometime after twelve in the afternoon but probably closer to four than to noon. Both of us were quietly sitting amongst the flowers, Edward having shifted to laying on his side, his hand still held out to me, his other one holding his head up as he watched me watch him.

"I wish," he whispered. "I wish you could feel the… complexity… the confusion… I feel… that you could understand,"

"Which is why I don't read minds," I smiled at him.

"Maybe it's for the best," he said as he smiled crookedly, standing before he tapped his temple with a finger. "I fear what you would find up here,"

I stood up with him, watching him. "How about you tell me about this confusion you feel?" I asked, slowly and carefully lifting my sunglasses until they were placed on top of my head, my eyes not as sensitive to the sunlight or to Edward's sparkly-ness as before.

"I don't think I can," he told me with a sigh, looking past me, his eyes telling me that he was zoning out a little bit. "I've told you; on one hand, that the deplorable creature that I am feels for you, thirsts for you. But… there are other hungers, hungers I don't even understand, that are foreign to me. I'm not used to feeling so human. Is it always like this?"

"For me?" I asked, still not completely understanding what he had meant by what he said, but I knew that I could still answer. "Not really. Although, as you well know, I'm not the normal teenage girl,"

"Most definitely,"

I rolled my eyes at him, shifting uncomfortably. "Are we leaving now?" I asked, seeing as we'd gotten up.

"I'm guessing you'd like to be home before your father,"

To this I shrugged, not really bothered with the idea of coming home late.

"Can I show you something?" he asked, getting a devilish smile on his face, reminding me of a little boy about to show his mother a mud pie he'd made while wearing his best suit. But then again that analogy probably didn't work the best with this situation considering that I had a dangerously large crush on this boy and he was much older than I ever could be.

"Show me what?" I asked, eyeing him cautiously.

"I'll show you how I travel in the forest," he explained before he smiled at my slightly worried expression. "Don't worry, you'll be safe and we'll get to my car much faster,"

"Will you turn into a bat?" I asked sarcastically, making him laugh a true laugh.

"Like I haven't heard _that_ before,"

"Right, I'm sure you get that _all_ the time," I said rolling my eyes.

"Come on, climb on my back,"

I waited to see it he was kidding, but, apparently, he was completely serious. He smiled as he read my hesitation and reached for me and proceeded to sling me onto his back with very little effort.

"Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, _you put me down_!" I exclaimed after I'd finished gasping in surprise, making sure to use his whole name.

"Calm down, little coward,"

"I'm not little, which is why I want you to put me down," I exclaimed, holding onto him despite what I was yelling for him to do.

And then he was running. He streaked through the dark, thick underbrush of the forest like a bullet, making the world seem as if we were ghosts moving through it. There was absolutely no sound around us, no bouncing movements that piggyback rides usually had when someone was running, no evidence that his feet ever touched the ground. His breathing never changed, never indicating any effort. But the trees flew by, missing us by inches, making me feel like I was flying.

Then it was over. We'd hiked hours this morning to reach Edward's meadow and now, in a matter of minutes, we were back at his car.

"Exhilarating, isn't it?" he asked as he finally allowed me to slide down off of him.

I'm sure that when he turned around he saw the largest smile on my face that he'd ever seen, one that I couldn't seem to get rid of no matter how hard I tried. That had been the most exciting thing I'd done since taking off in an airplane for the first time, which for anyone who has done so before knew that that wasn't the most exciting thing to do anyway. I started giggling like a little girl as I watched him smile down at me, looking twice as excited as he realized how much I'd enjoyed it.

"That was _so_ much fun!" I nearly yelled, jumping up to show my enthusiasm. "Why didn't you just run us there in the first place?"

"I didn't know how you'd handle it," he told me with a shrug. "After all, I didn't know if you would get motion sickness and I didn't want to start things off like that,"

I rolled my eyes at him and walked around him, getting in his car with the same smile on my face. I would definitely have to force him to give me piggyback rides more often.


	8. Friends For Dinner

**Chapter 8 – Friends For Dinner**

* * *

><p>For the next month Edward and I became increasingly close, much to his family's and my friends' annoyance, but I'm only assuming this by the glares from Jasper, Mike and occasionally the others of either group.<p>

I may be wrong.

Edward continued to pick me up every morning before school and drop me off after school on every day except for those rare sunny days. On these days I kissed my truck and drove it to school, missing driving it despite how much I typically disliked driving. I also got to sit with my old friends on these days, happy to be able to talk to Angela and Jessica- Jessica was happy to have me around since my absence made Mike fair game for her- who were both happy to have me back and wanted all the dirt on my and Edward's relationship. I told them the truth of course, that we had clicked and were really good friends, failing to tell them that I had the biggest crush on him since I knew that Edward would be able to read it from them later.

However, one day, with Edward absent, I was walking out of my Biology class, Mike beside me when he stopped and turned to me, seeming annoyed even though he had a smile on his face.

"So, Arizona…"

"So, Mikey," I threw back, waiting for him to get to his point.

"You and Cullen, huh? That's… I don't like it,"

I rolled my eyes and kept walking but he caught up with me.

"I mean, I don't know… He just looks at you like you're something to eat,"

The laugh that came flying out of my face had me slapping a hand over my mouth to try to keep quiet, although, by now, there was no helping the strange looks I was getting, including from Mike.

"Sorry… my best friend back in Phoenix and I have an inside joke," I told him, trying to cover it up even as I continued to chuckle to myself.

Edward and I spent a great deal of time together, hanging out at my house mostly, and sometimes going to his meadow, but only if he carried me on his back. We enjoyed talking to each other, hanging out, sometimes watching movies- especially ones like _Interview with the Vampire_ and the _Underworld_ series, me showing him exactly what he was supposed to be like… although it got awkward when the naked scenes came up. However, being a boy and coming over to my house so much, made it impossible for my dad not to notice or to wonder if Edward was my secret boyfriend. I assured my dad that he was just my friend but despite my telling him this whenever Edward and I went up to my room I was told to always have the door open.

Then came the day when Edward decided I should go over to _his_ house for a visit.

"Wait, like, the house that you live in? With your family?" I asked, sitting up a little straighter as he stood in my closet, looking through my large number of werewolf books.

How ironic.

"Yes," he said without looking at me, a smile in his voice.

"But what if they don't like me?"

He turned away from my book collection and raised a delicate eyebrow at me, clearly amused that I would think such a thing. "So, you're worried, _not_ because you'll be in a house full of vampires, but because you think they won't approve of you?"

I glared. "I'm sorry if I'm so old fashioned that, despite vampirism being involved, I want your parents to like me. Don't you want your parents to like your best friend, your _only_ friend outside of your family?" I asked him with a smirk that still held the glare. "May's parents still don't approve of me after they found out that she and I drank a whole bottle of vodka together during a sleepover,"

"Well I don't remember you offering me a shot of alcohol recently so I think you're safe," he told me with a crooked smile before he went to sit in the rocking chair in the corner of my room.

"Very amusing," I murmured.

Then in came my dad, giving Edward a strange look before he looked over at me. "Time for dinner, Andy," Then he turned back to Edward, that expression returning to his face. "Would you like to join us, Edward?"

"No thank you, Chief Swan. I was just leaving," Edward said politely before gracefully rocking himself up and out of the rocking chair, turning to me with a bow. "See you tomorrow,"

"See ya," I nodded, giving him a mock salute

He nodded to me and walked past my dad and down the stairs.

I listened to the door close before I looked up at my dad, giving him a questioning look and asked; "What was with that face?"

"What face?" my dad asked, feigning confusion. "This is my face. There was no face,"

I gave him a look that told him that he wasn't convincing me.

Finally he sighed and leaned against my door frame, making sure he wasn't looking at me as he said; "Have you told him about-?"

"Yes," I interrupted him, knowing what he was going to ask but not wanting to hear it.

Dad sighed loudly and looked down at me. "Are you sure he's not just trying to play with you?"

"_Dad_,"

He quickly raised his hands in surrender. "I'm just trying to be serious here, Andy," he said as he came into my room and sat down on my bed next to me, making the bed dip and squeak. "There are some sick people in this world and they love playing with girls, especially when they don't have much time left,"

I shook my head, annoyed with him. "Well Edward isn't like that, Dad. I think that if you got to know him you'd really like him. He's really old fashioned, holds doors open for me, says please and thank you, carries my books,"

Dad just sighed and nodded, patting me on the shoulder before he leaned in and kissed me on the forehead. "Alright, I trust you,"

"Thank you," I smiled as he got up and headed for the door. "Hey, what's for dinner?"

"Salmon,"

I groaned. "_Again_?"

The next day- a Sunday I might add- I woke up bright and early at six o'clock in the morning with no alarm clock to help me due to thinking about meeting Edward's family. However, it wasn't only because of anticipation that I woke up so early. My brain felt like it was expanding right through my skull, the pain so bad that I couldn't help but cry like a little girl. I stayed in bed for the two hours after having taken a Vicodin, most of that time having passed out, until my head stopped splitting. I groaned as quietly as I could and went to take a shower before getting something to eat in just a towel, much to my dad's annoyance. I then went upstairs and changed several hundred times, going through turtlenecks, shirts with sayings on them, comic book shirts, dresses, until I finally decided on taking another nap.

When I woke up it was nine thirty and, assuming that Edward would be arriving a ten like he usually did whenever we made weekend plans, I only had a half hour to get ready. Luckily for me, my headache had completely disappeared c and my hair hadn't dried into some awkward shape from sleeping on it. I changed into my favorite "fancy" shirt0 a dark blue V-neck shirt Edward had once commented on- and a pair of jeans, leaving my purple hair down but putting a black beanie on to hide the annoying blond roots that had been showing up lately, much to my annoyance.

When the doorbell rang I was booking it down the stairs, my Marvel purse slung over my shoulder as I skidded into my dad as he stared at me from in front of the front door.

"Where are you going?" he asked, arms crossed as he looked down at me.

I sighed, irritated with my father. "I'm going over to Edward's house to meet his family. May I go, please? _Please_?" I made an innocent face, putting my hands together in an angelic manner as I stuck out my bottom lip. "Please-please-please, please? Pwease?"

He eyed me for another moment before his face broke into a suspicious smirk. "Are you sure there isn't something you're not telling me?"

"Yes, I'm sure," I said, trying to move past him to get to the door.

"Then why are you going to meet his parents?"

"I had to meet May's parents," I argued.

He frowned. "You met them when you were eight because you were having a sleepover,"

I ignored him, trying to gently nudge him away from the door. He finally gave up, shaking his head at me and rolling his eyes before he opened up the door, not turning to look at Edward.

"No funny business and have her back before dinner,"

"Yes, sir," Edward said, though the smirk on his face didn't transfer to his voice as he said it.

"_Dad_,"

"You heard me,"

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Meanie,"

"I love you,"

"Yeah, yeah,"

I walked past my dad and Edward, ignoring both as I got into the all too familiar Volvo, pouting in my seat until Edward finally got into the driver's seat. It was silent except for the radio as we sped down the high way towards the outside of town a few minutes later, companionable silence between the two of us until I finally broke it.

"My dad's right, you know,"

"That we're going to be having sex once we get to my house?" he asked, a smirk in his voice.

I rolled my eyes and kept looking out my window. "He's right about our relationship being weird. Everyone has this narrow minded idea that we're dating and boinking each other between you taking me home and me actually arriving there,"

"I thought _I_ was the mind reader," Edward smiled, looking over at me the same time I looked over at him.

"I've been practicing," I smiled at him before I looked back out the window.

There was a long moment of silence before I heard Edward shift in his seat. "Then maybe we should fix that,"

"Fix what?" I asked, looking over at him.

"Maybe we should prove them right and just start dating," he said, as if he was repeating himself to a two-year-old.

I stared at him for a long moment, waiting to see it he was messing with me. However, after about thirty seconds of him not saying "_Gotcha_!" instead his face starting to get a bit uncomfortable and depressed, I realized that he was completely serious. It would be an understatement to say anything other than I was shocked at his proposal. Date him? Edward Cullen? A vampire? An actual sort-of-living, can-breathe-if-he-chose-to boy?

"I don't think that's a good idea," I finally told him, despite how much I liked him.

To this he turned back to the road looking a bit dejected. "Why?"

I sighed. "I'm _dying_, Edward. I don't see how dating would do any good for either of us. Not to mention I'd rather have you _actually_ like me," I told him honestly.

Then he was laughing, a real laugh that was full with what sounded like relief.

I frowned. "Why are you laughing?"

Edward took a moment to collect himself before he turned a crooked smile on me. "You think that I would date you without honestly liking you?"

"Well, I _am_ the pitiful sick girl," I told him while giving his shoulder a pitiful look. "That would also possibly finish off one of my bucket list items,"

"You are _not_ pitiful and I wouldn't do that to you," he said, turning his attention back to the road. "I honestly would like to date you, Andy, because I enjoy your company more than I have enjoyed anyone's that I have ever met in a long time,"

I stared at him. "Really?"

"Yes, the only ulterior motive I could have is that maybe I would get to get the chance kiss you," he told me with a bit of a smile and I was sure that if he was still human the tips of his ears would have been red. "And that would be purely for _my_ benefit and not for your bucket list. If I were to be truthful, I have had the urge to kiss you since before Port Angeles but _you_ said that I was in the '_friend zone_'. I don't enjoy it all that much except for being able to spend time with you,"

I stared at him, completely astonished, astounded, amazed, bowled over, caught unawares, dazed, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, knocked for six, rendered speechless, staggered, stunned, startled, stupefied, taken aback- every single word that could possibly mean shocked. That was me.

"Is the great Clarinda Swan speechless?" Edward asked me, looking over at me, smirking.

"Yes," I nodded, finally turning away from him.

After a long moment, after having pulled off the highway and heading down a dark unpaved road toward his house, Edward turned to me again.

"So will you?" he asked. "Will you date me, a soulless monster?"

I smiled at him and nodded. "Yes, soulless monster, I'll date you,"

"Even though I'm-?"

"A soulless monster?" I finished for him with a bit of annoyance. "You aren't either of those things and it doesn't matter to me what you are… just a good person that doesn't smell like body odor,"

To this Edward laughed.

"So… now what do we do?" I asked curiously, not exactly knowing how this would work. Hell, I didn't know how this would work even if we were both human.

"Well… my preference would be to see if this is even possible," Edward replied, glancing over at me again.

I nodded, though I couldn't keep the smile off my face. "I think I can live with that,"

That was when we arrived at Edward's house.

It seemed to be set in the center of a large meadow that had been turned into a lawn. Like in Edward's meadow, it was the sudden brightness inside of the gloom of the forest. Unlike his meadow however, there were six thick and tall cedars that seemed to have randomly started growing in odd places throughout the acre of meadow.

The house which sat in the center of it all looked to be about a hundred years old but had been restored and looked completely timeless. It had a deep wrap around porch on the first floor and a few small balcony type porches on the second and a ton of large windows. The house was tall, rectangular, well-proportioned and was painted a soft, faded white with wood accents.

Edward's Volvo was now the only car in sight do to the large garage on the side of the house which I was sure held a number of cars owned by each member of the family. And as I got out of the car I could hear the river close by, hidden in the obscurity of the forest.

I stood in my "fancy" shirt, jeans and ancient shoes and felt completely obsolete.

"I don't know if I can do this,"

Edward came to stand next, looking between me and the house.

"I'll be right here," he assured me. "There's nothing to worry about,"

I frowned, keeping a hold of the handle of the car door, leaning back against it. Edward rolled his eyes at me, stepping toward me as a cold hand slipped down my back and touched the hand clutching the handle. He gentle uncurled my fingers from the handle as his expression turned amused as I fought him, trying to keep my hold on the door.

"Come on,"

"No,"

"_Andy_,"

"No,"

My hand was completely pried away from the handle when Edward's arm wrapped around my waist and he spun me away from the door. I gasp, grabbing onto him to steady myself, glaring at him as he chuckled at me.

"That's not fair,"

He didn't say anything, just took ahold of my hand and pulled me towards the house. "It'll be fine. They'll like you. I promise,"

I frowned. "You can't speak for others,"

He sighed. "Well I know Alice already likes you. And Esme will like you regardless,"

I looked over the house as he pulled me through the door. "Fine… Okay,"

He turned back to me and smiled. "Look at you, trusting a vampire. This is real growth,"

I smiled at his joke, making me feel better.

The inside of the house was huge, the living room and dining room- which I thought was random- having become one giant room, other walls probably having been torn down to make it so large, except the dining room having been pressed back into the south facing wall. The walls, the high-beamed ceiling, the wooden floors and the thick carpets were all varying shades of white, even the little furniture they had. Only the accents, like the throw blankets and the lamps, weren't white, mostly consisting of browns and reds. All the walls in the large room had been cut in half by the looks of it, the top half of the walls having been turned into windows, reminding me of a ballet studio because of the one long windowsill that reminded me of the bar that wrapped around the walls. Off to the farthest right hand corner was another room that was a bit closed off from the rest of the room which I assumed was the kitchen which was currently emanating smells of cooking and the sounds of the cooking channel.

"Whoa," was all I said, the feeling of being obsolete rising.

"Not what you expected?"

"Well…" I said began, feeling a little guilty. "No, but on the other hand, if _anyone_ had this house it would not be what I expected,"

"Fair enough," he smiled. "This is the one place we don't have to hide…"

"So why not live awesomely?" I nodded, not wanting to move for fear of breaking something or getting my human/blood scent on something.

Then he looked over to the kitchen and chuckled before he looked over at me, looking a mixture of amused and embarrassed. "I told them not to do this,"

"What?" I asked, curious as he led me toward the kitchen, the smells of Chinese food becoming more prominent as we got closer. When we finally came around the corner I could see Carlisle at the stove, using a wok to make pan noodles while Alice, Emmett and a vampire I didn't recognize, who I assumed was Esme, were cutting up various ingredients and piling them into their own little bowls. Jasper was the only one not cooking, standing stiffly near the back door, his pained eyes on Alice's back as she skipped around the kitchen before her eyes found me.

"Hi, Andy!" she exclaimed, running over to me at human speed until she was hugging me, taking me by surprise. As I looked over her shoulder at everyone, they all seemed to look staggered and cautious, I could even feel Edward stiffen next to me. As she pulled back she had sort of a dazed and surprised look on her face as she smiled at me. "Oh, you _do_ smell good,"

"Alice, what are you-?"

"It's okay," Alice interrupted Edward with a smile. "Andy and I are going to be great friends,"

From what I knew of her there would be no arguing that point.

"Andy! We're making Chinese for you," the woman I assumed was Esme told me with a smile as she came over to me.

She was just as beautiful as the rest of them, her skin pale and her eyes golden, but her hair, unlike the rest of them, probably closer to Edward's than any of the others, was a dark chestnut and curled past her shoulders in thick waves. She looked as young as Carlisle and yet they both seemed to have a parental quality to them.

"Andy, this is Esme," Edward said, introducing us as Esme came up to me, shaking my hand. "My mother for all intents and purposes,"

"A pleasure," she greeted.

"Thanks, it's great to finally meet you," I nodded, feeling shy and feeling the urge to hide behind Edward so that I'd be able to see them but they not see me.

"You're giving us an excuse to use the kitchen for the first time," Carlisle smiled from over at the stove, doing a fancy flipping trick with the noodles without looking.

"I hope you're hungry," Esme smiled at me.

"Yeah, absolutely," I nodded, my stomach now realizing I hadn't fed it in a while, making me pray that my stomach didn't randomly start growling.

"She already ate," Edward suddenly said, making me look up at him with a glare as I heard something break.

"You liar," I murmured, knocking my hip into his as I turned to Esme, my face probably turning beet red. "I was actually just waking up from a nap when he came to pick me up. The only thing I've eaten today was a roll,"

"Well, good!" Esme smiled before she gave Edward a motherly glare before turning back to help Carlisle.

I stood beside Edward as he sighed in annoyance, apparently hoping that I'd go along with him so that he could get me out of there. I didn't want to though, I wanted to watch them, meet them for real instead of being carted away and never have the chance again. That was when I noticed Jasper glaring at me from across the room, making me literally take a step behind Edward in sheer fright.

"Sorry, Jasper's our newest vegetarian," Carlisle smiled over at me as he looked in between Jasper and I. "It's a little difficult for him,"

Jasper turned his glare on Carlisle then. "Yes. Let's just keep pretendin' like this isn' dangerous for all of us," he murmured, just loud enough for me to hear.

"I would never tell anybody anything," I said as almost a gut wrench reaction.

"He knows that," Carlisle nodded, looking over at Jasper again as he took the wok off the stove and went to stand closer to us, Esme at his side.

"Yeah, well," Emmett began, leaning lazily against the counter with his arms crossed over his overly muscled chest. "The problem is, everyone in town knows that you two are kinda besties, so if-"

"Emmett," Emse interrupted.

"No, she should know," Jasper argued as Alice went over to him, looking as if she was about to tell him to be quiet but he got it out before she got to him. "The entire family will be implicated if it ends badleh," he practically growled. "And if it doesn' end up being him to accidently finish her everyone knows that it'll be mah fault,"

I took this in before I started to speak. "Badly, as in… I would become the meal,"

An uncomfortable laugh went through the kitchen as Jasper just continued to glare, making me feel all types of unwelcome and obsolete as I stood amidst them.

"All right, I'm gonna take you on a tour of the house," Edward spoke up, taking my arm as he turned me away from his family and out of the kitchen.

"I'll see you soon," Alice smiled, waving to me as I left.

"Not arguing with you there," I called back, earning me another laugh from the family.

Edward and I silently made our way out of the kitchen and up a flight of stairs to the next level to the next level of the house, his hand against the small of my back.

"Was that as weird for you as it was for me?"

"Probably," I nodded before I stopped, eyeing a large display of something that looked painfully familiar. "Are those… graduation caps?"

Edward smiled at me. "Yeah. It's a private joke," He shrugged. "We matriculate a lot,"

"That's kind of miserable," I told him, looking up at the caps. "I mean, repeating high school _over and over_. That _has_ to get boring,"

"True but the younger we start out in a new place the longer we can stay there,"

"I don't see the point though," I told him, leaning against the wall as he came to stand in front of me. "Why start out young to stay there for ten years or so when you don't get to know anybody? That's like standing in line for tickets to a concert and then not going in,"

He shrugged. "It's easier to hide what we are from people if no one gets close to us to figure it out," Then he smiled and gestured to me. "Exhibit A,"

"Ha ha," I laughed sarcastically, rolling my eyes as I swatted his hand away.

I followed the stairs up to the second level, intent on continuing my tour without him. However, when I was met with closed a long line of closed doors, I decided to wait for him to catch up. When he did he gestured for me to continue down the hall towards a closed door, opening the door and leading me through with a shy expression.

"My room," he informed me.

Edward's room was the darkest I'd seen in the house due the forest green colored walls. His room seemed to be at the corner of the house, the east facing wall completely made of glass and about a foot of the south facing wall that connected to the east wall. Otherwise, the rest of his room was painted a dark forest green and covered in shelves of CD's, a very fancy and expensive looking stereo system sitting against the south wall. On the west wall however, sitting next to the door, was a very comfortable looking black leather couch with a soft gold throw blanket on the back that matched the shag carpet on the hardwood floor. On the last wall was a small desk that was covered in piles of papers and notebooks.

I walked over to them, looking over them and opened one curiously. Upon seeing Edward's worried face, I picked it up and made as if I was going to read it, watching him squirm.

"I uh- I wouldn't read that," he began, looking extremely jittery. I smiled and set the notebook back down in its place carefully. "I mean, you can if you want… or have trouble sleeping,"

"I might need to borrow one then," I smirked at him, gaining a shocked look before I looked around the room again. "No bed?"

"No… I don't sleep remember,"

His voice was slow as his mind traveled to darker and smuttier avenues that the voice inside my head was going that sounded strangely like my best friend, May. I decided to pull both our minds out of the gutter; "You're loss. My bed is probably my favorite piece of furniture,"

Next I walked away from him and up to his music collection that varied from vinyl to CDs, all in an order that seemed to be by year. I moved along the shelves until I smiled, finding both of my favorite bands among the few I didn't know.

"Do you have any favorites?" he asked me, coming up to stand next to me.

"Yeah," I nodded, looking over the rest of his stuff so he couldn't follow my line of sight. "But I don't really want to tell you what they are,"

"Why not?" he asked, sounding like a psychiatrist that wants to know why you aren't answering the question.

I just stuck my tongue out at him as I pulled a record off one of the shelves, holding the picture of the hillbilly looking man in front of my face and aimed toward Edward. I heard him snort at my antics before I lowered it to reveal the frown on my face, lifting the record again until it revealed the Joker-like grin. Once I was finished with that, I returned the record back to its correct spot and looked to Edward's stereo system.

"How about we just find out what _you're_ listening to?" I asked, already turning on his CD player and pushing play.

"Debussy," Edward murmured, seeming a bit embarrassed again.

"_Claire De Lune_ is great," I assured him. "May used to listen to this a lot when she was looking for a song for her solo back in eighth grade. It kind of stuck with me,"

Edward smiled before he took my hand in his, slowly turning me around as if we were dancing. I started giggling when he continued trying to get me to dance, stopping him as he looked at me confused.

"What?"

"I don't dance,"

Edward just chuckled. "I can always make you,"

I rolled my eyes at him. "I hate to burst your bubble but you're not nearly as scary as you think you are. I don't find you at all scary,"

He stopped, his eyebrows arching upward in blatant disbelief just before he flashed a wide and wicked smile at me.

"You really shouldn't have said that,"

He suddenly growled, a low sound in the back of his throat, his upper lip curling back over his perfect teeth. His body shifted suddenly, half-crouched, tensed like the mountain lions he said he preferred to hunt, about to pounce on me.

I backed away from him, eyeing him cautiously. "You wouldn't,"

He did.

I didn't see him leap at me- it was much too fast for me to see- and I found myself suddenly airborne before we crashed onto the sofa, knocking it into the wall. All the while, his arms formed an iron cage of protection around me, barely jostling me. I glared at him, adrenaline rushing through my veins but he seemed well in control, his jaw relaxed as he grinned, his eyes bright only with humor.

"You were saying?" he growled playfully.

"That you are a very, very terrifying monster," I said sarcastically, smiling up at him as I tried to take deep breaths to get my breathing back to normal.

"Much better," he approved.

When I didn't struggle against him, he curled me into a ball against his chest, holding me more securely than iron chains as his nose came into contact with the top of my head, making me freeze. But nothing happened; he just took in a deep breath through his nose and sighed.

"It's getting easier all the time," he murmured.

"Glad to hear it," I smiled, relaxing a bit.

After a minute of sitting like that Edward shifted a bit, pulling away from me as he sighed, seeming a little annoyed. "It's time for lunch,"

At this, I gasped and grabbed my throat, my eyes wide as I looked up at him, getting a horrorstruck expression from him before I burst out laughing. He didn't seem amused though.

"That's not in the least bit amusing,"

"You know it was," I argued, getting up to grin down at him mischievously.

"No it wasn't,"

My grin grew as I leaned down toward him to whisper; "Yes. It was,"

Then I took off running, squeaking when I felt arms wrap around my waist as I was slung over his cold shoulder and carried downstairs.

As time went by Edward and I became more like a couple and less like best friends though I don't think we actually ever went on what most would consider a real date. We held hands and called each other boyfriend and girlfriend, meaning that when I called May to tell her- otherwise she would have killed me- she insisted on talking to him. Edward of course, had been sitting in his usual spot in my room- in my rocking chair- and had taken the phone from me. May then went off on him, talking about not messing with me because I was sick or she'd come down here personally to kick his butt. She told him that I was like a sister to her so she didn't want to become an almost-aunt so she wanted us to use protection because she insisted that Edward "_plug it in, plug it in_" before I kicked the bucket. After this of course, Edward and I burst out laughing before I felt a little teary eyed, missing her more now more than ever.

But in my opinion, it was when he first kissed me that we really started to act like a real vampire/human couple. We were sitting in the center of his room, his head resting on my thigh as I leaned back on my hands, the two of us listening to Nickelback, more specifically _Savin' Me_, a song that reminded me of Edward a little.

"I'd like to try something," Edward suddenly said, sitting up in a flash so that he was facing me, slowly leaning close to me with a serious expression on his face. "May I kiss you?"

I stared at him, shocked at his question before a smile lit my face. "You may,"

He leaned forward a bit more before he hesitated- not in the normal human way like before a man kisses a woman, to gauge her reaction, but he hesitated to test himself, to see if this was safe and so that could make sure he was still in control.

I waited patiently, in no hurry, not wanting to push him.

I know. Big surprise right?

And then his cold lips pressed very softly against mine. It was a sweet, chaste kiss, but certainly something that I enjoyed. We pulled back and I smiled, turning away to blow out a breath of frosty air, similar to the kiss Rogue and Bobby shared in the X-Men movies, just minus the ice crystals. I turned back and smiled up at him before he leaned forward again, kissing me with a little more energy. This kiss left me breathless when he pulled back, looking proud of himself though he seemed to be breathing hard despite his lack of need to breath.

"Wow,"

"Ditto," I smiled, my lips feeling cold but electrified at the same time.

"_Can we come in_?" a soft voice sounded from the hall.

"Go ahead," Edward called without looking away from me, the same silly expression on his face as was on mine.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Alice dance into the room, apparently not finding anything unusual about us, coming to fold herself down to sit next to us. Jasper, however, paused at the door, his expression a trifle shocked.

"Jasper said that it felt like you were kissing in here," Alice announced with a smile. "We aren't interrupting anything are we?"

"No," Edward said, shaking his head as he pulled me toward him.

"Actually Alice says there's goin' to be a real storm tonight and Emmett wants to play ball," Jasper said, smiling despite himself as he finally walked into the room. "Are you game?"

Edward's eyes lit up but he hesitated.

"Of course you should bring Andy," Alice chirped, Jasper throwing her a quick glance.

"Do you want to go?" Edward asked me, clearly excited.

I looked between them all, Edward and Alice looking excited before my eyes landed on Jasper who looked a lot less than excited, broaching on annoyed. I shrugged, looking over at Alice for a bit of support. "I don't want to intrude…"

"You wouldn't be," Alice assured me. "Everyone will want you to come,"

I glanced back at Jasper before I smiled at Edward. "Sure. Um, where are we going?"

"We have to wait for thunder to play- you'll see why,"

"Will I need an umbrella?" I asked, making all three of them laugh aloud.

"Will she?" Jasper asked Alice.

"No." She was positive. "The storm will hit over town. Should be dry in the clearing,"

"Good, then," The enthusiasm in Jasper's voice seemed stiff.

"Let's go see if Carlisle will come," Alice bounded up and to the door in a fashion that would break any ballerina's heart.

"Like you don' know," Jasper teased, and they were swiftly on their way.


	9. The Other American Pastime

**Chapter 9 – The Other American Pastime**

* * *

><p>Edward took me home so that I could get ready and ask my dad about it. I was thankful since this had been the <em>one<em> day I had decided to wear a dress. I changed into my favorite oversized _Lord of the Rings_ t-shirt and cargo pants, throwing on a tie-dye jacket and a beanie. I headed down the stairs, grabbing my dad a beer and went into the dining room where he was cleaning his shotgun, making me debate on whether I should come back later.

"Hey, I got you another one," I said, setting the can down next to the one he was finishing off.

"Thanks,"

I stood there for a moment before he finally stopped what he was doing to look over at me, giving me a questioning look that finally made my mouth move.

"I have a date,"

"Really?" he asked with feigned interest, turning back to his gun.

"Tonight,"

"That sounds nice,"

"… With Edward," I finished slowly.

This made Dad stop and put down his stuff to look at me, seeming annoyed that our relationship had turned out how he had thought it would all along. I didn't really blame him all that much, just waited for the questions and the I-told-you-so's to come.

"I thought you said you guys weren't like that… that you guys were just _friends_,"

"We were. It's just… lately it's been different,"

He sighed and turned back to his gun.

I frowned at him. "I thought you liked the Cullens,"

"Them not causing trouble is what I like," he corrected me, continuing cleaning the barrel of the shotgun, looking at me out of the corner of his eyes. "Dating you is what I don't like,"

"_Dad_,"

The doorbell rang.

"That him?"

"Probably," I admitted, glancing between the shotgun and the door. "He wanted to meet you officially as my boyfriend. He's kinda old school like that,"

"All right," he sighed, flipping his gun closed threateningly. "Bring him in,"

"Please be nice," I said immediately, eyeing the shotgun carefully, hoping that we wouldn't have to put the fact/theory that vampires were indestructible to the test. "He's kinda important to me either way, friend or boyfriend,"

Dad just gave me an innocent look and drew an imaginary halo around his head.

I rolled my eyes at him and went and got Edward.

"Nice to see you again, Chief Swan," Edward smiled politely; shaking my dad's hand with his glove covered one.

"Hey, Edward," Dad nodded.

"I just wanted to tell you that I was taking your daughter out tonight to play baseball with my family. We shouldn't be out late,"

"Baseball?" my dad repeated, looking over me with a bit of a stunned look before he started laughing, much to my embarrassment.

"Yes, sir, that's the plan,"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Thanks, Dad, love you too,"

"Well, good luck with that you two," my dad finally said, coming down to a chuckle.

"I'll take good care of her. I promise," Edward finally said before I pulled him away, making him head outside as I grabbed my bag and coat. "Have a nice night, sir,"

"Hey, Andy," I stopped as Edward continued out the door, looking back at Dad as he held up his hand as if he were holding a spray can. "You still go that pepper spray I gave you?"

I rolled my eyes, grabbing it out of my bag and holding it so he could see it.

"Aim for the eyes,"

I rolled my own. "_Dad_,"

I quickly headed outside, heading to where Edward waited by an oversized green jeep, the passenger side door open and waiting for me. I smiled at him as he handed me an old fashioned baseball cap, having me put it on.

"So since when do vampires like baseball? Or is it just you guys?" I asked, pulling the bill down over my eyes, feeling more like a gangster (wanna be gangster) than a baseball player.

Edward smiled down at me and pulled the bill back up so he could see my eyes. "Well, it's the American pastime-"

"I thought that was football," I interrupted him with a grin.

"Wrong," he smiled, gently pushing a bit of my hair behind my ear. "And I think it'd be a bit more dangerous for vampires to play football,"

"Why?" I asked, curious as helped me into the passenger seat.

"You'll see why when we get there," he smiled before closing the door, only a second later appearing in the driver's seat, starting the jeep.

About a half hour later, we were driving into a two by two acre clearing with paths worn into the grass that created a diamond, a mound in the center. Edward's family all stood near what I assumed was the home plate, Esme and Carlisle sitting together on a nearby boulder.

"So is there anything you should warn me about?" I asked as Edward helped me down out of the jeep with more ease than it should have been for a teenage boy.

Immediately Edward busted out laughed, apparently finding me very funny. "You ask me this _now_?" he asked, probably meaning the hungry, hungry vampires.

I raised my hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, I thought it'd be helpful if you told me now rather than later why you guys play naked," I said, taking off towards the others.

This of course, sent Edward into another laughing fit.

When Edward and I reached the group, Esme smiled over at us, taking Carlisle's hand as they jumped off their bolder and came over to us. "Was that you we heard, Edward?"

Emmett suddenly appeared beside me, his nose scrunched. "It sounded like a bear choking,"

I nodded. "That was him,"

"Andy was being funny," Edward told everyone, the smile still on his face.

Alice caught sight of us and smiled, dancing from her position on the mound toward us, coming to a stop beside Carlisle.

"It's time," she announced, a deep rumble of thunder shaking the forest beyond us, and then crashed westward toward town just after she spoke.

Emmett leaned toward me, his eyes on Alice as if she was a frightening before he grinned down at me with easy familiarity. "Eerie, right?"

"Let's go,"

Alice reached for Emmett's hand and they darted toward the oversized field; she ran like a gazelle. He was nearly as graceful and just as fast- yet Emmett could never be compared to a gazelle.

"Are you ready for some ball?" Edward asked, managing to kiss my cheek before he ran off with the rest of them, leaving me in Esme's hands.

"Don't you play?" I asked her as she and I sat down on the boulder.

"I usually act as umpire and catcher,"

"She thinks we cheat!" Emmett suddenly yelled from the outfield, apparently having heard her from all the way out there.

"I know you cheat," she called back with an easy smile.

When the game finally started I instantly realized why they needed the thunder. Whenever they hit the ball with the bat there was such a loud crack that it could only be mistaken for thunder. But as the game continued I found that it was hard to keep up due to how fast everything went, though I enjoyed watching Alice pitch and the rest of them running around at the speed of a bullet.

By watching the game, I learned a couple of things. I learned that Edward was the fastest runner, Alice was the most awesome pitcher I'd ever seen, Emmett was the most competitive though he remained playful, Jasper could do some awesome tricks with a baseball bat and was really good at baseball, Carlisle enjoyed the game just as much as the rest of them and Esme thought, despite my being human and currently dying, that I was the best thing to happen to Edward since Volvos came out.

But things went wrong when Alice suddenly gasped, making Edward's snap up to look at her as their eyes met, something flowing between them in an instant. Before I could contemplate what was going on Edward was at my side, even before the others could ask Alice what was wrong.

Esme's voice was tense. "Alice?"

"They were leaving but then they heard us,"

"Let's go," Edward said, his body tense as he pulled me off the boulder, headed for the jeep.

"It's too late," Carlisle told him, making Edward stop.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Nomad vampires," Carlisle answered for Edward.

I nodded, remembering asking Edward about it back when the strange "_animal_" deaths were occurring around town. Apparently they were here and they were coming, which was not a good thing for the little blood filled human in our midst.

"Get your hair down,"

"If the wind catches it they'll smell me instantly," I argued.

"She's right," Jasper nodded, looking at me with a hint of surprise.

"Not to mention my hair is purple," I muttered, trying to ignore the first nice thing Jasper had ever said to me in this tense moment.

"Leave it then," Edward said stiffly, pushing me behind him. "I'm sorry, Andy. It was stupid and irresponsible, to expose you like this,"

I place my hand on the small of his back (lower back), rubbing my thumb over his spine to try to get him to relax a little bit. He seemed to shiver against my hand before he relaxed back against my hand minutely.

That was when the new vampires appeared. There were three of them and they appeared out of the forest in a V formation, similar to how geese fly or some predators hunt. The first thing I noticed about them as a group at the distance that we were at were that their clothes looked like clothes hikers would wear but were beyond the point where humans would wear them due to how dirty and frayed they looked. They were also barefoot which I found interesting but I figured that shoes where really pointless for vampires except for looking normal. As they grew closer, coming to stand in front of the Cullen clan, I could see that their eyes weren't the gold or black that I was used to but were blood red… go figure. This of course, led me to wonder how the hell they went around without people wondering what they were.

"I believe this belongs to you," the vampire in the center smiled, holding up the baseball that had been long forgotten. He tossed it to Carlisle with lightning fast speed but Carlisle seemed to catch it easily.

"Thank you," he nodded.

"I am Laurent," the center one smiled, a shirtless African American vampire with a bit of an accent. He may have been at the front and center of the group but by his and the second vampire's body language this wasn't true. "And this is Victoria,"

He gestured to the woman on his left, a woman with long curly hair the same color as deadly eyes who smiled at us devilishly. She looked like that cat that your grandmother has that you sure would kill you in your sleep if it had sharp enough claws to do it with.

"And James,"

To Laurent's right was the man in charge, a blonde guy with his hair pulled back into a ponytail wearing a leather jacket. He was silent but his eyes were moving over all of the Cullen clan before his eyes moved to me. They didn't linger long enough to realize what I was but slowly made their way up to Edward who had tensed again, his posture and face making me think that Edward alone would set James off.

"I am Carlisle and this is my family," Carlisle spoke up, a nice break from having to look at the new arrivals. "I'm afraid your hunting activities have caused something of a mess for us,"

"Our apologies," Laurent continued, seeming genuine and very gentlemanly. "We didn't realize the territory had been claimed,"

"Yes, well, we maintain a permanent residence nearby,"

Laurent looked between Victoria and James, surprised. "Really? Well, we won't be a problem anymore. We were just passing through,"

"The humans were tracking us, but we led them east," Victoria spoke up, looking pleased with herself as she whispered; "You should be safe,"

"Excellent," Carlisle nodded.

"So, could you use three more players?" Laurent asked, either seriously wanting to play or totally oblivious to the tension in the air. "Oh, come on. Just one game,"

Carlisle let out an uncomfortable chuckle before he nodded. "Sure, why not? A few of us were leaving. You can take their place. We'll bat first,"

Carlisle threw the ball to Laurent but Victoria's hand was suddenly up the ball appearing in her hand. "I'm the one with the wicked curve ball,"

"Oh, Ah think we can handle tha'," Jasper chuckled, making everyone else laugh as some of the tension was released as the groups broke apart.

"We shall see,"

"Emmett and Alice, you can go with Edward and Andy to get the Jeep," Carlisle said casually, half turning to us as Alice and Emmett nodded.

However, three things seemed to happen simultaneously while Carlisle was speaking; my hair ruffled with the light breeze, Edward stiffened and James suddenly whipped his head around, scrutinizing me as he nostrils flared. James lurched forward a step as he fell into a crouch, Edward shoving me backward into Esme as he and the rest of his family did the same, shortly followed by Laurent and Victoria. They all had bared teeth, crouched down defensively as feral snarls and growls poured out of all of them, making me shiver in fright.

"A human?" Laurent asked, looking beyond surprised verses James and Victoria who looked ready for a fight, wanting it more than anything.

"The girl is with us. I think it would be best if you leave," Carlisle told them instantly, leaving no room for argument.

"I can see the game is over. We'll go now," Laurent agreed, pulling back before he glanced over at his clan mates, seeing that they hadn't moved. "_James_,"

After a long moment of Edward and James glaring at each other, James finally pulled back, Victoria following him as they walked away with an arm around each other. James didn't disappear the same way Laurent and Victoria did as they ran back into the woods. He stopped to glance back with a smirk, telling me that he'd be back for me. I shivered and closed my eyes as I rested my head against Esme's shoulder, feeling all types of dread.

"Edward, get Andy out of here," Carlisle ordered. "Emmett, Alice, go with them,"

Before I knew what was happening I felt Edward rip me away from Esme and sling me across his back before I felt myself getting thrown into the backseat of the jeep.

"Strap her in,"

Emmett did as he was told as he appeared in the seat next to me, Alice pushing the seat back down as she got in. Edward sent the car fishtail as appeared in the driver's seat, taking off into the woods at breakneck speeds. It was a bumpy ride as we sped through the woods, everyone completely silent except Edward as he growled something that was either too fast for me to understand or just unintelligible growling.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked.

Nothing.

"Edward, answer me!"

Again, nothing.

"Would someone answer me?!" I yelled but everyone was either ignoring me or intent on staring out the windows to watch for James. "_Dammit, now is not the time to not tell me_!"

The stress of what had occurred, the utter hopelessness of my future, the frustration with those around me and the bumpy ride was doing wonders for my head. A throbbing was beginning to center itself over my left temple, only noticeable during the calmer parts of the ride or when I yelled. I squeezed my eyes shut to calm myself and get rid of my headache.

It worked for neither.

"I am not a five-year-old for you to just decide where I am to go or do! Tell me where the hell you're taking me, dammit!" I yelled, turning to my seatbelt, trying to undo it.

"_Emmett_,"

Large white hands clamped down over mine, stopping me from undoing my belt.

"Dammit, Edward Anthony Masen Cullen!" I roared, my headache growing worse. "Do you know what causes seizures? Stress! Don't make me have a seizure on you!"

I felt Emmett chuckle silently beside me as Edward groaned.

"Edward, pull over," Alice spoke for the first time, sounding completely calm.

"James is a tracker, Alice," Edward suddenly roared as I felt Emmett stiffen against me at the word, making me understand that trackers weren't a good thing for vampires, probably having extreme tracking skills like werewolves in Patricia Briggs's _Mercy Thompson_ books. "The hunt is his obsession and he wanted her- her specifically- my reaction on the field set him off. I just made this his most exciting game ever. He's never gonna stop,"

"Edward, pull over," she repeated, undeterred.

"How long do you think it will take him to cross her scent in town?" Edward continued. "Her house will be the first place he's gonna look,"

"Oh, my God. Dad!" I yelled, fighting against Emmett even though I knew it was pointless. "We have to go back! He could get killed because of me!"

"She's right," Alice nodded. "Just pull over and we can discuss our options,"

The jeep suddenly screeched to a stop, the only thing keeping my head from slamming into the back of Edward's seat being Emmett's arm.

"There are no options," Edward hissed.

"I'm not leaving my dad!" I yelled but he seemed to ignore me completely.

Emmett finally spoke. "We have to take her back,"

"_No_,"

"He's no match for us, Edward. He won't be able to touch her,"

"He'll wait,"

Emmett smiled. "I can wait, too,"

"You didn't see- you don't understand. Once he commits to a hunt, he's unshakable. We'd have to kill him,"

Emmett didn't seem upset by that idea. "That's an option,"

"And the female. She's with him. If it turned into a fight, the leader will go with them, too,"

"There are enough of us,"

"There's another option," Alice said quietly.

"_**There-is-no-other-option**_**! He wants her regardless**!"

Emmett and I both stared at him in shock but Alice seemed unsurprised. The silence lasted for a long minute as Edward and Alice stared each other down unspoken words passing between them.

"Look, even though I know only two out of three of you are listening," I began, breaking the tensed silence as Edward and Alice continued to stare. "But I _need_ you to listen to me. Take me back to my house, I'll tell my dad that I want to go back to Phoenix as sort of one last fling with May before graduation and everything. James will then follow us out and leave my dad alone and then you can take me where ever the hell you want,"

Emmett shrugged. "It's not a bad idea, really,"

"I think I'm insulted," I said, giving Emmett a look as he smiled at me.

"It might work," Alice began, thinking about it. "And we simply can't leave her father unprotected. You know that,"

"It's too dangerous," Edward growled, his hands nearly breaking the steering wheel like in Port Angeles. "I don't want him within a hundred miles of her,"

This was when I spoke up again. "Right now all that matters to me is making sure that my dad is safe. It doesn't matter if James gets me as long as everyone's alright- I won't let someone die in my place when I'm just going to die in a few months anyway. I don't care if he gets-"

"Would you stopping acting like dying is no big deal?!" Edward suddenly yelled at me, shocking me into silence and making me sit back in my seat. "Can you not understand that I fear for you?" he asked, toning his voice down as he glanced over the back of his seat at me. "You pretend that nothing affects you because you are just going to die anyway, like this is all some sort of game. But I care for you, Andy. It pains me to think that you might not be here tomorrow,"

Everyone was silent for a long moment before Emmett spoke up, supremely confident. "Edward, he's not getting through us,"

Alice thought for a minute. "I don't see him attacking. He'll try to wait for us to leave her alone,"

Emmett scoffed. "It won't take long for him to realize that that's not going to happen,"

"You're leaving tonight whether the tracker sees or not," It took me a second to realize that Edward was talking to me. "Tell Charlie whatever you need to get out of there; you are going to see May, you can't stand another minute in Forks, I don't care. No matter what he says to you I want you back out of there. Pack the first things your hands touch and then get into your truck. You have fifteen minutes. Do you hear me? Fifteen minutes from the time you cross the threshold,"

"Of course," I smiled, looking over at Emmett and winking at him.

After that, Edward started driving again and tried to make plans to have Emmett and Alice stay behind, wanting Emmett to watch the back and then take the jeep back to their house while Alice stayed in my truck and waited for me and we'd all drive until we found a fast car to steal and Alice would drive my truck to their house. No one agreed with anything beyond watching the house, Emmett and Alice wanting to stay with us, Alice because she was my friend and Emmett because he wanted a crack at James. I, however, didn't think that Edward should go with me at all, having had loads of experience in profiling from _Criminal Minds_… not that that really counted.

"Edward, I think you should let me go alone and you should stay behind," I spoke up, interrupting their argument.

"Andy, please just do this my way, just this once,"

"Listen, Charlie's not stupid," I protested. "If you're not in town tomorrow, he'd figure that you and I ran off to finish my bucket list. He'll be after you and your family in all sorts of lawful ways including with his shotgun. And then there's James. He saw the way you acted tonight, how protective you are and knows that you won't leave me. Not to mention it's not just me he wants, if you are the one that set him off tonight it's only going to be when you're there that he's going to have fulfilled his goal,"

Emmett looked at me, insultingly surprised again. "Edward, listen to her. I think she's right,"

"Yes, she is," Alice agreed.

"I can't leave you," Edward said through clenched teeth, his voice icy.

"Emmett should stay too," I continued. "He definitely got an eyeful of Emmett,"

Emmett looked betrayed. "What?"

"You'll get a better crack at him if you stay," Alice agreed.

Edward stared at her incredulously. "You think I should let her go alone?"

"Of course not," Alice said. "Jasper and I will take her,"

"I can't leave her," Edward repeated but this time there was a trace of defeat in his voice. The logic was working on him despite his emotions.

"Hang here for a few days," I continued. "Let Charlie see you aren't boinking me and lead James on a wild-goose chase. Make sure he's completely off my trail. Then, in a roundabout way, come and meet me and then Jasper and Alice can go home,"

I could see him beginning to consider it.

"Meet you where?"

"Phoenix, of course,"

"No. He'll hear that's where you're going," he said impatiently.

"He'll know that we know that he's listening and that the whole thing is a ruse. He'll never _actually_ believe I'm going where I say I'm going,"

Emmett chuckled. "She diabolical,"

"Why, thank you," I smiled over at him.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"There are several million people in Phoenix," I told him.

"I kind of like it,"

"Shut up, Emmett,"

That was when we finally arrived at my house. All of the lights were on, meaning that Charlie had waited up for me, probably passed out on the couch watching sports. I felt my heart rate pick up as I contemplated what I had to do and what I'd possibly have to do to get my dad to let me out of there without too much of a fight. But I was determined to do it without having to delve into the world of hurt that my mom had inflicted upon him, only staying on last minute vacations with May and guilt tripping him into letting me go.

"Andy,"

I turned my attention to Edward as he looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

"If you let anything happen to yourself- anything at all- I'm holding you personally responsible,"

"Promise?" I asked, knowing that he was the _Blame Me, Please_ types.

He ignored that and turned to Alice. "Can Jasper handle this?"

Alice rolled her eyes at him in annoyance. "Give him some credit, Edward. He's been doing very, very well all things considered,"

"Can _you_ handle this?" Edward asked.

Alice let her lip curl away from her teeth and she snarled before a smile replaced it. "I could always just-"

"_Shut up_,"


	10. Phone A Friend

**Chapter 10 – Phone A Friend**

* * *

><p>I ran into the house, slamming the door behind me to make sure that Charlie was awake to hear my tiradeepiphany. I saw him jerk up off the couch, turning around to squint at me before he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"How was your date with Edward?" he asked, stretching as he got up.

"Great," I told him, running upstairs where I found Edward with a packed bag, my laptop missing from my desk and my favorite book missing from its shelf along with my drawer open to reveal he'd removed all of my favorite shirts. "Is my grandfather sweater in here?"

"Yes," he said, his eyes telling me he was in pain.

"Good," I smiled, kissing him on the cheek before I pulled back to glare at him. "I'm still mad at you though,"

I slung the bag over my shoulder with my Batman bag and headed down stairs to where my dad was messing around in the cupboard. I walked right past him and grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and my truck keys off the wall.

"Where are you going?" he finally asked, looking over at me, confused.

"May called me while I was with Edward and his family," I told him, heading for the door. "I decided to go on a last minute vacation before finals and go down to see her,"

"Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," he stuttered, running around in front of me, holding his hands up to stop me like a traffic cop. "You aren't driving home right now. You can sleep on it and if you still feel like going in the morning I'll drive you to the airport,"

"No," I whined like a little girl. "I want to drive. I want to see Washington and California," I tried to look as excited as possible with a sadistic vampire possibly listening in, waiting to kill me. I continued to walk towards the door, Dad walking backwards to stay between me and my exit. "If I get tired I'll just pull into a hotel. I was going to ask Edward to come with me so that May could meet him but I figured that you wouldn't like that idea very much,"

I reached around him to put a hand on the door knob but he blocked me again

"Look, Andy, I know I'm not that much fun to be around but I can change that. We can do more stuff together," he said, almost pleading, prying my hand off the door knob. "Andy, come on, you can't just leave. I just got you back,"

Tears came to my eyes as I looked up at him. Oh how I'd missed my dad and only now was I realizing just how much he'd missed me. I practically jumped on him, giving him a big hug before I pulled away, kissing him on the cheek.

"Dad, this isn't about you. I promise. I love living here, I love eating at the diner and hanging out watching baseball. It's just that…" I stopped, trying to find the right words to explain it to him. "I don't have a lot of time left and I want to see things, do stuff that I haven't done yet and I really need to see May," I stepped away from him, looking up at him with a look that I remember working on him when I was little and wanted cookies. "_Please_, let me go. I promise I'll come back,"

Dad stared at me for a long moment before he finally broke. He sighed, reaching forward to ruffle up my hair, making me duck and give him a mock-glare as I tried to fix it.

"Call me. And pull over even if you're a little tired,"

"Good thing I'm hopped up on sugar," I smiled, shifting my weight. "The Cullens really aren't as healthy as you'd believe; they are constantly just eating candy and junk," I kissed him on the cheek and ducked around him, running out the door before he could change his mind. "I'll call you when I get to Phoenix! I love you!"

I then jumping into my truck and pulled away, headed for the highway.

"Let me drive,"

I gasped, the truck swerving as my hand flew to my chest when Edward was suddenly beside me as if he'd been there all along.

"_Shitake mushrooms_. Don't do that right now!" I told him as his arm went around my waist, pulling me across his lap until he was suddenly the one driving, his arm remaining around my waist as he held me to his side.

I leaned into him, my head against his cold shoulder, feeling good against my forehead as I felt my headache begin again. Things, though they hadn't really settled in before, were starting to settle in now; A person was coming to kill me, torture me, just for the fun of it. Now I knew how a great deal of the _Criminal Minds_ victims felt. I doubted I'd be able to watch that show anymore after this even with the Port Angeles incident… if there _was_ an after this.

Headlights suddenly appeared behind us.

"Alice?" I asked, to which Edward just nodded. "Did James hear any of that?"

"He heard the end of your performance,"

"My dad?"

"The tracker followed us. He's running behind us now,"

That didn't sound good, especially with the passenger side door a few feet to my right, looking very unprotected. "Can we outrun him?"

"No,"

But after a second my truck suddenly whined as it was forced to speed up.

"If you break my baby you buy me a new one," I warned him though my voice shook as I said it.

My plan suddenly didn't feel so brilliant anymore, so I tried my hardest to repeat what I knew about him. He wouldn't want a quick death; he'd want me alone, preferably with Edward, not driving around in a truck. I turned around in my seat so that Edward's hand went over my stomach, which tickled, to stare at Alice's headlights, hoping to keep myself calm in some way instead of just sit there and fester. But when the truck shuddered and a dark shadow sprung up outside the window a bloodcurdling scream flew out of my mouth just before Edward's hand clamped down on my mouth.

"It's Emmett!"

He released my mouth, and I turned and curled into his side, tears coming to my eyes as fear sent my heart and head pounding painfully. I was starting to feel like I was in a horror movie that I couldn't pause. I had the feeling that the fear you feel just before the bad guy jumps out at you would be a constant thing for the next few days. I didn't much enjoy that thought.

"It's okay, Andy, it's okay," Edward promised, his hand petting the back of my head. "You're going to be safe. It's going to be okay,"

We drove right up to the house, the lights on inside though they didn't seem to alleviate any of the blackness outside. Emmett had my door open before the truck was stopped, making me jerk back when his cold hands grabbed my waist. He pulled me out of the truck and tucked me like a football into his vast chest and ran me through the door, Edward and Alice at our side. The whole family was there, on their feet at the sound of our approach with Laurent in their midst. I could hear low growls rumble deep in Emmett's throat as he sat me down next to Edward.

"Wait. He came to warn us about James," Carlisle said, putting his hand up.

"This isn't my fight," Laurent told Edward more than the rest of them. "I won't choose sides but I will tell you this; he's got unparalleled senses, absolutely lethal. I've never seen anything like him in my three hundred years. And the woman, Victoria, _don't_ underestimate her,"

With that Laurent disappeared, running out the back door with vampire speed.

"Ah've had to fight our kind before," Jasper began instantly. "They're not easy to kill,"

"But not impossible," Emmett finished happily as the whole room began to buzz, Carlisle moving to a bookcase and pulling out a wad of cash from a hollowed out book as Alice danced to Jasper's side and whispered in his ear before they flew up the stairs together.

"We'll tear them apart and burn the pieces," Carlisle said, looking over at Esme. "I don't relish the thought of killing another creature, even a sadistic one like James,"

"What is he kills one of you first?" I spoke up, causing the whole room to stop. "I don't want you guys to risk your lives for me. I couldn't live with myself if one of you got hurt,"

"You're with Edward, Andy," Carlisle said, turning to me. "You're a part of this family now,"

"And we protect our family," Esme finished as she came over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

I smiled. "Thank you,"

"Esme, could you trade clothes with Andy?" Edward asked, not having moved from my side.

"Of course,"

Esme suddenly swung me up into her arms and took me upstairs into a dark hall where she helped me change out of my clothes, handing me hers faster than I thought she could change. Once I had her fancy slacks and blouse on she picked me up against and deposited me at the foot of the stairs in less than a second where everyone was waiting.

"Esme and I will be taking your truck, Andy," Carlisle told me as he passed. "Alice, Jasper- take the Mercedes. You'll need the dark tint in the south. Edward and Emmett are taking the Jeep. Alice," He suddenly turned to her. "Will they take the bait?"

Everyone watched Alice as she closed her eyes and became incredibly still until a few seconds later she opened her eyes. "He'll track you. The woman will follow the truck. We should be able to leave after that," She seemed dead sure about what she was saying, but then again, who would argue with her?

Carlisle nodded. "Let's go,"

But instead of everyone heading to their positions, Edward was suddenly at my side, his hands on either side of my face. He seemed completely unaware of his watching family, or else he didn't at all care, as he pulled my face to his. It was another of his chaste kisses but it was enough to warm me up and push some of my fear away for a moment.

"Don't grow fangs while I'm gone,"

That was what my brain thought of. That was the highly intelligent and incredibly witty comment that fell out of my mouth. On the inside I cringed at how stupid it sounded but Edward just smiled down at me as if it had been funny. He kissed me on my forehead before he was suddenly gone, Emmett disappearing with him.

We all stood there as the silent moment dragged on until Esme's phone vibrated in her hand before it instantly flashed to her ear. She nodded to Carlisle who headed toward the door. "Be safe," she smiled, touching my cheek as she passed, her whisper lingering behind them as they slipped out the door. I heard my truck start with a loud roar and then fade away.

Jasper and Alice waited until Alice's phone went to her ear, even without it buzzing before she hit the end button and told us; "Edward says the woman is on Esme's trail. I'll get the car,"

She vanished into the shadows the way Edward had gone, leaving Jasper and I to stand there awkwardly, him standing across the length of the entryway from me.

"You're wrong, you know," he said quietly.

I looked over at him with a bit of confusion. "About what?"

"Ah can feel what you're feelin' and you _are_ worth it,"

"I'm not," I mumbled. "If anything happens to them, it will be for nothing,"

"You're wrong,"

I heard nothing, but then Alice stepped through the front door and came toward me with her arms held out. "May I?"

"You're the first one to ask permission," I smiled wryly.

She lifted me in her slender arms as easily as Emmett had, shielding me protectively, and then we flew out the door, leaving the lights on behind us.

We drove all that night and all the next day at a speed that a policemen's daughter cringes at but it got us to Phoenix in one day instead of the three day trip it was supposed to take. I barely noticed however, because my headache that I had been feeling coming on the night before had grown into the mother of all migraines. I tried not to show it but when I couldn't sleep and I moaned a couple of times Alice had traded her seat beside Jasper for the seat beside me, allowing me to use her hand and lap as a cold compress. It helped but didn't make the headache go away.

I ended up still being half awake by the time we came through a shallow mountain pass and the sun- behind us now- reflected off the tiled rooftops of the Valley of the Sun. I could recognize that wide, flat expanse anywhere. Phoenix; the palm trees, the scrubby creosote, the haphazard lines of the intersecting freeways, the green swaths of golf courses and turquoise splotches of swimming pools, all descending on the center of the city that I had grown up with.

Jasper had me give him directions to the airport, wanting to stay near one just in case, and then found an overly fancy one to stay in. Alice led me to our rooms and had me sit down on the bed where I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

When I woke up the next morning my head felt minutely better thanks to the sleep and the blinds being closed. I sat up slowly, ducking my head when it began to throb again and waited until it stopped to get up and head out into the living room. I couldn't find Alice but Jasper was sitting on the couch watching TV, some sort of old western documentary or something. I carefully folded myself down into the chair and watched it with him for a few minutes before it started to feel really awkward.

"So…" I began, drawing out the word. "Edward told me that you and Alice came from another family… that you two found each other before you found Carlisle,"

Jasper looked over at me, seeming to debate whether or not he was going to tell me before he leaned toward me. "Alice is a strange creature. She doesn' remember anything of her human life. But after she woke up, she saw me and knew that Ah needed her,"

He smiled at this before his expression became grave and he pulled up his sleeves. From what I could see- and that wasn't much- the skin of his arms were completely marred by bite shaped scars.

"Battle scars," he told me, looking down at them. "All the trainin' the Confederate army gave me was useless against the new borns… But still, Ah never lost a fight,"

Now my curiosity was truly peaked and I hoped that he wasn't just going to leave it at that without telling me where he'd gotten them. Luckily, he didn't.

"Ah was the youngest major in the Texas Calvary without even seein' any real fightin'," he said with a breathy chuckle, his eyes looking over my shoulder as he remembered. "Until Ah met a certain immortal; Maria," he said, a bit of figurative venom in his voice as he said her name. "Ah was ridin' back to Galveston after evacuatin' a colony of women and children when Ah saw them. Ah immediately offered them my aide,"

"Which they didn't deserve," I added in myself, getting a small smile from him.

"She asked me my name and then told me that she hoped Ah'd survive because Ah'd be of use to her... and then she changed me," he told me as he pulled down his sleeves. "She was makin' an army. They were very common in the south back then. There were constant brutal battles for territory. Maria won them all. She was smart, careful and she had me. My ability to control emotions served her well. Ah trained her newborns… an endless occupation since she never let them live beyond their first year. It was my job to dispose of them," Jasper sat back a little, his voice getting harsher as he continued, his eyes staring at the ground as he seemed to remember every person he'd "_disposed_" of. "Ah could feel everything they felt. Ah thought what Maria and Ah had was love but Ah was her puppet and she pulled the strings. Ah didn' know there was another way," Then a smile lit his face despite his sad eyes. "Until Ah found Alice. And she'd seen me comin' of course,"

"_You kept me waiting long enough_,"

The both of us looked up to see Alice stand behind the couch just over Jasper's shoulder, smiling down at him.

Jasper chuckled and smiled up at her. "My apologies, ma'am,"

Their eyes never left each other as Alice came around the couch and sat down next to him.

"Ah don' know what Ah would have become without her,"

"Shh. You never have to be that again," she promised.

Then they started kissing, making me feel flustered and awkward. I looked away and tried to focus on the Louisiana Purchase but failed when they started growling.

"Okay. Either take that to the bedroom or stop it," I said, putting a hand over my eyes as my face turned bright red.

"Sorry, Andy," Alice chuckled, though I could hear Jasper giving her more soft kisses.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you were in a book it'd be cute but since this is real life it's awkward to watch," I told them as I got up and went to my room for a nap, only waking up when Alice knocked on the door and asked to come in.

"You look like you could sleep longer," she told me as she danced over to my bed, sitting down on the edge as I sat up.

"I think I've slept long enough," I told her as she handed me a small pill bottle.

I looked down at the label to find the name Lauren Feenhaw and below it hydrocodone aka Vicodin.

"Where did you get this?" I asked.

"From some drug dealers I know," Alice smiled before pushing them toward me. "It's for when you have your next headache,"

I wasn't sure if I should be worried that Alice was dealing with drug dealers or incredibly thankful that she was getting me miracle pain killers. I decided on the second one and hugged her.

"We'll need to stay inside though," she told me as she got up and shut the curtains a little more, getting rid of that terrifying centimeter of white curtain behind the open heavy curtain.

"Okay," I nodded.

"Thirsty?"

"I'm okay. How about you?"

"Nothing unmanageable," Alice shrugged, touching her throat with her fingertips. "I ordered some food for you. It's out in the front room. Edward reminded me before we left that you have to eat a lot more frequently than we do,"

"Thanks," I smiled, getting up and following her out to the living room.

I followed the scent of French fries and a toasted cheese sandwich over to the little table where I devoured it within minutes. Once I was finished I turned to Jasper and Alice who were both engrossed in watching _Underworld_. Go figure, vampires liked to watch vampires kill other vampires.

"Have you heard anything?" I asked, getting anxious as I said the words.

The two glanced at each other before Alice sighed. "No,"

"Are you lying to me?" I asked.

"I wouldn't lie to you," Alice said, looking me dead in the eye trying to convey how sincere she was to me.

I believed her. "Sorry,"

"It's alright,"

"Shouldn't they have called by now?" I asked, pulling my legs up to my chest so I had to balance on my chair.

"Unless they have nothing to report or they're afraid they tracker or the woman is too close and they might over hear the conversation," Jasper put in without looking up from the TV.

"Or?" I asked, making them both look up at me.

"Andy, you have nothing to worry about," Alice sighed. "There are two of them and six of us. There is no danger to us. Our only fear is losing you,"

"But why should you-"

Jasper interrupted me this time, looking annoyed at my continual worrying. "It's been almost a century that Edward's been alone. Now he's found you. You can' see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you? Or worse, have to feel what misery he will feel?"

My guilt slowly subsided as I looked between the two of them, though I wasn't completely sure that it was my guilt subsiding or Jasper shoving it away.

"Will Edward turn me into a vampire then?" I asked.

I had clearly caught them off guard by my question but it was something that had been floating around in my head for the past few months. If Edward cared about me so much would he turn me into a vampire? And wouldn't it have been easier to turn me into a vampire now that a tracker was after me instead of just running me around like a football? I wasn't completely sure what the hell was going on but if Edward cared about me so much wouldn't the next step be vampirism? I mean, it had been floating around in my mind but I didn't want to bring it up and make things awkward or make him think that that had been why I had stuck around with him. I truly cared about him and if falling in love with each other and then dying as a human was how it was supposed to end, I was fine with it… at least for now.

Alice and Jasper looked at each other before Alice got up and came to sit in the chair across from me, looking very serious, a first for her. "Edward… has a different view of being a vampire as you probably well know," she began, seeming to have a hard time finding the words. "And he thinks that he no longer has a soul-"

"Which is stupid," I murmured, interrupting her.

The way I saw it is that to be alive one needed a soul to be who they were, that the soul was who a person was, without it they'd be a walking zombie. I also saw it as, without a soul, a person couldn't love or feel the way Edward did, so how could he not have a soul?

"Agreed," Alice nodded. "But he believes it and that's what's important. And to him, to change you, he would have to strip you of your soul. I don't see him doing that until he had no other choice,"

I thought about her words and suddenly understood and realized that it was completely true. Edward was indeed like that, the _Blame Me, Please_ type. He didn't blame having to kill and drink blood on being a vampire, he blamed himself. It was quite bothersome sometimes but it definitely made me feel needed for the first time in my life when I needed to comfort him or set him straight.

Over the next day or so, things began to get really boring. We never left the room, made sure that room service didn't come up, kept the curtains closed and kept the TV on even though, as time went by, none of us actually watched it. I changed into the comfiest clothes I had and stayed in the bedroom a lot, listening to music, Alice following me like a little puppy dog. I had fun talking to her and agreed with her statement back when I'd first met the whole Cullen family; we were great friends, although, not as close and mindreading as May and I were.

At one point I was curled up on my bed, my head aching a bit when I decided to ask her something that had been bugging me for a while.

"Would you tell me something?" I asked.

She looked down at me before she tilted her head, a wolf-like response as Patricia Briggs would say, which told me to continue.

"How do you become a vampire?"

My question seemed to catch her by surprise, making her quiet for a long moment with a bit of an uncomfortable look on her face.

"Edward told me he'd rather not have me tell you," she said finally.

"_Rather_, as in you can, but he'd _rather you not_," I pointed out, slowly sitting up, squinting my eyes as my head throbbed a bit at the new altitude.

Alice sighed, letting a smile play on her lips as she contemplated breaking the rules. "Alright. I'll tell you the mechanics of it but I don't remember it myself and I've never done it or seen it done, so keep in mind that I can only tell you the theory,"

I nodded enthusiastically, scooting closer.

"As predators, we have a lot of weapons in our physical arsenal- much, much more that really necessary; the strength, the speed, the acute senses, not to mention those of us like Edward, Jasper and I, who have extra senses as well. And then, like a carnivorous flower, we are physically attractive to our prey. But we have another fairly superfluous weapon. We're also venomous," she said, her teeth glistening as she flashed me a smile. "The venom doesn't kill- it's merely incapacitating. It works slowly, spreading through the bloodstream, so that, once bitten, our prey is in too much physical pain to escape us. But as I said, mostly superfluous since if we're that close, the prey doesn't escape. Of course, there are always exceptions,"

"So… if the venom is left to spread…" I murmured, trying to get her to continue.

"It takes a few days for the transformation to be complete, depending on how much vemon is in the bloodstream and how close the venom enters to the heart. As long as the heart keeps beating, the poison spreads, healing, changing the body as it moves through it. Eventually the heart stops and the conversion is finished. But all the time, every minute of it, a victim would be wishing for death,"

I shivered.

"It's not pleasant, you see. For everyone else, the pain of transformation in the sharpest memory they have of their human life," Alice told me before her eyes got a little unfocused. "I remember nothing of being human,"

"Well that's wonderful," I murmured, getting a chuckle from her.

"Yes, well I suppose-" she suddenly cut off, her eyes staring at something I couldn't see, flashing around erratically. "Something's changed," she said in an urgent voice, not talking to me anymore.

Jasper suddenly appeared next to her, taking her shoulders into his hands, looking her in the eyes even though she wasn't looking at him.

"What do you see?"

"The tracker, he just changed course,"

"Where will it take him, Alice?" he asked.

"Mirrors. A room full of mirrors," she murmured, sounding slightly dazed. "It's long and there are mirrors everywhere. The floor is wooden. He's in the room and he's waiting. There's gold… a gold stripe across the mirrors,"

"Where is the room?"

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head a little. "Something is missing- another decision hasn't been made yet,"

"How much time?"

"It's soon. He'll be in the mirror room today or maybe tomorrow. It all depends. He's waiting for something. And he's in the dark now,"

Her eyes shifted and then focused on Jasper's face.

"There's nothing else?"

She shook her head.

"Edward said that her visions weren't always certain," I commented, the first thing coming to mind at the moment.

"She sees the course people are on while they're on it," Jasper explained, still staring at Alice, their eyes never leaving each other. "If they change their minds, the vision changes,"

"So the course that James is on now is going to lead him to a ballet studio?" I asked.

Both of them turned and stared at me, stunned.

"What?" I asked, sitting back a bit. "I used to take ballet. May still does,"

"It that studio here in Phoenix?"

"Yeah,"

"Would you have any reason to go there now?"

"Probably not but…" I thought for a moment, fear rising up in me before a forced calm washed through as I saw Jasper stiffen. "May goes their everyday but I'm pretty sure that she's been too busy with family to go there during classes,"

They both seemed satisfied with this answer but I wasn't. It was true that May had told me she'd been way too busy to go to classes and she'd been planning on going to Spain with her family. However, that didn't mean that she'd gone and if she hadn't gone that wouldn't stop her from going and getting the key from Miss Lisa, the instructor, and going after hours when no one was there.

My thoughts were interrupted when my phone started going off, making me jump until I realized that the creepy knocking was the beginning of _Thriller_, Edward's ringtone. I ran to my purse and picked it up, a bit of relief washing through me.

"Edward?"

"_We lost the tracker_," Edward told me instantly. "_The woman's still in the area. Esme is going back to Forks to protect your father. I'm coming to get you. Then you and I are gonna go somewhere alone and the others will keep hunting. I'll do whatever it takes to make you safe again_,"

"I know," I told him before a smile lit my face. "Hey, is Emmett there with you?"

I could tell this took him by surprise because it took a moment for him to answer me. "_Yes_?"

"Could you hand him the phone?"

There was a long moment before I heard Edward tell Emmett something and the phone shuffled between their hands. "_Hey, Andy, not causing too much trouble, are you_?"

"Nah," I said with a smile. "Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"_Sure_,"

"Could you smack Edward for me?"

I heard some more shuffling and some laughter from Emmett before Edward came back on the line. "_That wasn't funny_,"

I laughed outright. "Oh, yes it was, Mr. Serious," After a moment however, I became Mrs. Serious along with him. "Tell everyone to be careful, alright? I miss you,"

"_Believe me, I know. It's like you took a part of me with you_,"

At that I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. "Then come and get it,"

I heard him chuckle against his will. "_I'll be there soon_,"

"Bye,"

Once the phone call ended everything seemed to swirl over me again, making me fall down into the chair behind me. Alice and Jasper were going about packing and cleaning up before Jasper left the room, leaving just Alice and I.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked, coming to crouch next to my chair.

I nodded, though I regretted it as my head started to throb. "I'll be fine," I told her truthfully.

I looked down as my phone started _She's On Fire_ by Train blaring out of the small speakers and a picture of May sitting lewdly in my mom's old VW Rabbit lit up my phone. I smiled down at my phone before looking up at Alice as I stood, heading back into the bedroom for some privacy and Alice just smiled at me.

"We'll be downstairs when you're done," she told me before heading out the door.

Once I was in the bedroom with the door closed I picked it up, answering the call in the same chipper way I almost always answered the phone with her.

"City morgue,"

"_Andy_?" I immediately froze as I heard the fear and pain in May's voice, making me stop and place all of my attention of the phone call. "_Andy? Is that you_?"

"May? What is it? What's wrong?"

I heard the phone shift around for a second before a deep purely male chuckle came over the phone, replacing May. "_Forks High School doesn't protect its students' privacy very well. It was just too easy for Victoria to find your previous address. It's a nice house you have here. I was prepared to wait for you but then May came over after she received a very worried all from your mom and dad and it all worked out quite well_,"

"_Andy! Please help me_!" I heard May scream nearby before she suddenly grew quiet.

"Don't hurt her!" I cried into the phone, afraid for her.

"_You can still save her_," James told me, a smirk in his voice since he knew he had me. "_But you're gonna have to get away. Can you handle that_?"

"Where should I meet you?" I asked him even though I already knew where he wanted me to go to meet him, where he was holding my best friend that was paying for my adventure.

"_How about your old ballet studio_?" he asked as I heard May struggle against him through the phone. "_And I'll know if you bring anyone along. Poor May would pay the price for that mistake_,"

"Fine, I'll be there… just don't hurt her," I said as he hung up the phone.

I slammed my phone down as tears flooded my eyes. Me dying was fine, I was going to die in a few months anyway unless Edward decided to turn me. The Cullens dying was painfully, something horrible that wasn't totally impossible but not something right on the edge of me losing it. But May? I had known her since second grade; she'd been my best and almost only friend since I knew what friends were. I couldn't stand the thought of her being tortured by some raving immortal lunatic because I'd been too dumb to think that she wouldn't be at ballet because I wanted to fall in love and have an adventure before it was all over.

I was mad, sad and helpless all in one. Why the hell would James bring others into this and why did May have to go to stupid ballet? Why did it have to end like this, with my definite death and May's possible death even if I _did_ go? Why was it _me_ that had to do this?

But I knew what I had to do.

Before I did, I grabbed the little pad and paper off the side table and began writing furiously, hoping that Edward would be able to read it.

_**Edward.  
>I<strong>__**'m sorry. He has May and I can't just sit here and let her die. I'm pretty sure that he'll just end up killing me and May anyway but I've got to try. And please don't come after him. That's what he wants more than me, to have you in the palm of his hand. Don't be mad with Alice and Jasper. If I get away from them it will be a bigger miracle than parting the Red Sea with a toothpick. Tell them thank you for me. I'm so sorry.  
><strong>__**Please hold me responsible.  
><strong>__**~Andy**_.

I folded it several times before sticking it into my purse and heading downstairs, leaving all of my stuff there. Once out of the elevator I peeked around the corner to see Alice and Jasper at the counter, talking with the checkout person. I knew this would probably be my only chance, so I turned and booked it out the doors and slid into the closest taxi and told him to step on it- literally.

I looked back out the back to see Jasper and Alice standing at the entrance of the hotel, looking around before Alice's eyes caught on mine. I knew by that look that they'd lost; the sun was out and there was no way they could catch up to me now without using vampire speed which would probably raise some eyebrows.

So I turned back around and took a deep breath before I told the taxi driver where to drop me off.


	11. I Don't Remember

**Chapter 11 – I Don't Remember**

* * *

><p>Beeping was the first thing I heard when I began to wake up, an annoying beeping that never changed tempo or volume as I listened to it.<p>

As things started fall into sink and make sense, the throbbing of my head came into focus followed by the pain of my body coming in at a close second. What the hell had happened to me? It wasn't as if I'd gone running through a forest of knives or managed to roll myself in a homicidal rose bush. I shifted to get more uncomfortable, further confused when I found that I was in a papery bed and when something tugged against the back of my hand.

Slowly, I opened my eyes.

"Andy?"

I blinked until my mom came into focus. I was in a hospital bed with too many bandages wrapped around various parts of my body, my mom sitting beside me, one of my hands in hers. I groaned, closing my eyes against it, hoping to wake up somewhere else besides a hospital. But when I opened my eyes again I was still there, my mom smiling down at me.

"Honey? Andy?"

I nodded. "I know, I know. I'm Andy," I murmured, frowning as she just smiled in relief. "Maybe _you_ should be in this bed if you don't know who I am,"

"Good to see you too, baby," she chuckled, swiping a thumb over the back of my hand.

I frowned as I tried to sit up, hissing when various areas of my body sparked with pain. Mom shot up in an instant, hands hovering over my body to try to find a way to alleviate the pain but ended up just frowning, her hands holding my again. It was a little pitiful, watching her sputter as she tried to help me when all she could really do was hold my hand. I helped her hands tighter in mine, finding comfort in the warmth of her hand.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"Well, when you had your seizure you fell. You got cut up and you lost a lot of blood,"

I stared at her dumbly.

"You don't remember any of this, do you?" she asked, a small smile on her face. "The nurse said that you might have some retrograde amnesia due to your seizure,"

I thought back, trying to remember something that made sense but I only seemed to get flashes as I winced painfully, the back of my head feeling like it might explode as the rest just throbbed.

"It's alright," Mom told me, placing a hand on my forehead, shushing me comfortingly. "You drove out here to see May but she'd already driven up to see you in Forks apparently. Edward and his dad flew down to come and get you. When you were with them at the hotel you had a seizure and fell down the stairs. Went right through a window,"

I squinted at her, remembering a window… That's sounded right.

"Do you remember any of that?"

I thought for a moment but gasped as flashes of memory became stronger. I could practically feel myself flying through the air and slamming into glass, a vision of May lying on the ground crying out in pain replacing it a moment later. I whimpered as images swirled through my head nonsensically, the only thing keeping me from falling into nothing being my mom's voice.

I shook my head despite the pain.

"No. No, that's not what- what happened," I gasped, closing my eyes as my head throbbed painfully as memories tried to resurface. "I can't remember…"

"It's alright," Mom repeated, shushing me. "Just rest now, okay?"

I frowned. "My head hurts,"

She chuckled at me, leaning forward until her lips touched my forehead. "I know, baby,"

Suddenly a phone started going off, allowing me to focus on something else. My mom stepped away from me and reached into her purse to pull out her phone, looking over the message on the screen before she started texting. To my surprise, she was good at it.

"It's Phil," she told me nonchalantly, closing sliding her phone closed and dropping it back into her purse. "He's so worried about you. I told him to stay down in Florida," She smiled. "Honey, you are gonna love Jacksonville. It's sunny every day and we found the cutest little house and you've got your own bathroom and a huge built in bookshelf. The house is right on the beach. We can just step out and be on the beach and swim and sunbathe. It'll be great. Just the three of us again,"

I frowned, something nagging on me. My mouth knew what it was before I did. "Mom… I don't want to go to Florida… I still want to live in Forks,"

She stared at me in surprise. "What?"

"I still want to live in Forks," I repeated with a little more assurance. "I like it there despite the gloom. I've never written so much in my life and May was thinking of going to school at WSU,"

"Well… okay," she nodded, looking still a bit shock but going along with it. Probably because I was the tumor patient, hurt and still a bit out of it. "But we'll talk about it later,"

I nodded.

"How about you need to rest now, okay? I'm gonna go down and get something to eat. Do you want anything?"

"No thanks," I said, about to shake my head when I decide not to.

Mom nodded, getting up to kiss me on the forehead. She smiled down at me before she headed out, giving me one more look before she closed the door behind her.

Edward was instantly by my side.

"Whoa," I gasped in surprise. "Where were you?"

"I was pretending to sleep," he told me, gesturing to a lounge chair behind him. "What were you thinking, Andy?"

I tried to remember, slowly inching my way backward in my memories. "… I was in the hotel… Alice had a vision about James and the ballet studio…"

Edward frowned, sitting down when he realized just how much catching up I needed before he started yelling at me. "And I called you on the phone,"

"And I got Emmett to smack you," I smiled, definitely remembering that part. "… Then I got a call from May… and James," My eyes grew wide as I remembered May crying for me to help her while James chuckled and told me to join him at the ballet studio. "What happened to May?! I was supposed to meet them at the ballet studio,"

"Andy, relax," Edward took my hand in his, trying to calm me down. "You went there,"

I closed my eyes, remembering looking up at the studio, seeing the glare of the windows before I finally walked in to meet my doom. I could remember seeing May withering in pain in the center of the ballet studio floor before I dropped down on my knees next to her to see a bite mark on her neck.

"I remember… he bit her,"

_**I didn't kill her. She'll be a nice addition to my coven, don't you think?**_

I stopped as my eyes went wide as guilt so strong that it brought tears to my eyes hit me square in the chest. I felt so guilty that I had gotten my best friend killed- or at least nearly depending on how things had turned out- because I had wanted one last adventure before I died, because I had fallen madly in love with a vampire.

I looked up at Edward with watery eyes. "James bit her… I was too late…"

He shook his head. "No, Andy. She is alive… in a sense,"

I frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

"She's a vampire,"

I stared.

"She was already too far into the transformation. We took her back to Forks on a private jet. She should be finished changing by now. We'll take her in as one of our own,"

I sighed yet again in relief. "Thank you, Edward,"

"What else do you remember?" he asked.

I closed my eyes again and was met with a pearly white teeth set in a Cheshire Cat grin. I gasped, jerking back into my pillow as Edward held tight to my hand, murmuring comforting words to me. A camera was shoved into my face, a voice taunting me as screams filled the air, some mine, some May's.

_**Don't you want your boyfriend to save you? … It's cruel that he kept you a fragile little human… Did you think that a vampire would want something like you, little Clarinda? … Say you want him to avenge you! Say it! … Tell him how much it hurts!**_

I gasped, my eyes meeting Edward's black ones, fear gripping me as I remembered a hand slamming into my chest and knocking the air out of me as I flew backward. His eyes were the only thing keeping me in the hospital when my body and mind remembered being whipped around by my foot into one of the ballet mirrors followed by long, deep slices into my arms and legs as James cut me. Afterwards I could remember lying on the ground and looking up to see Edward pinning James and then there was nothing except for the feeling of being picked up by ice cold arms, a face nuzzling my neck as Edward whispered he was sorry.

Edward's cold thumb rubbed against the back of my hand in soothing motions.

"What happened to James?"

"We took care of James," he told me as he sat down in the chair next to my bed. "And the woman, Victoria, she ran off,"

"Are the others alright?"

"Yes… though you gave Alice, Jasper and I quite a scare," Edward frowned. "You promised not to get yourself killed,"

"And you promised to blame me for whatever happened,"

Edward raised an eyebrow. "I do,"

I smiled. "Good," I closed my eyes, trying to relax back into the uncomfortable bed. "Is anything broken?"

"No… but Andy… you've got to go to Jacksonville… Spend the rest of your time with your mother… so I can't hurt you anymore,"

My eyes were open in an instant, meeting his. "But you didn't hurt me, Edward. James did,"

"Same difference," he argued without looked directly at me.

I stared at him for a long moment before a thought came to my head, something that might help me force some sense into his thick, immortal skull.

"Edward… when I was a little girl I never thought of death, at least not until I'd learned that my grandmother had died. Then when I was a teenager I imagine I'd die like Allie and Noah from the Notebook. But do you know how I thought I'd die a year ago?" I asked him though he refused to so much as look at me, so I just continued on. "I thought that I would slowly be killed by the thing growing inside of me. I thought that'd I'd die from my head being squeezed as I lost control of my body and I'd never get my first kiss, ever get to feel cared for by a boy or ever get to have an adventure," I tugged on his hand to make sure he was listening. "_You_ gave me that and more whether it put me in danger or not. It was my fault if it was anyone's, I was the one that traded my best friend for a few months with you, and to be quite honest I think she'll enjoy being a vampire. Don't make me leave now,"

Tears were flooding my eyes as I looked at him.

"Unless you don't care about me… Please, don't make me leave now. I don't want to live what's left of my life without you,"

"Don't," Edward suddenly said, stopping me as his hand came up to wipe away the tears. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Andy. I'm right here. I won't make you leave, ever, if you don't want to," he told me, allowing my body to relax back into the bed, the stress leaving me as a wave of exhaustion replaced it. I watched him from where my head rested against the pillow, my eyes on his. "I don't want you to leave any more than you do,"

I frowned. "Then down ask me to,"

Edward sighed, his hand squeezing mine. "Well how about this…" He leaned forward, kissing me sweetly on the lips, sending my heart monitor racing before he pulled back. "I love you,"

I stared at him for a long moment before a smile lit my tired face. "Good, I thought I'd have to be the first one to say it and then it would have been _really_ awkward," Edward let out a snort before he rolled his eyes and placed another chaste kiss on my lips.

"You're amazing,"

I grinned. "So are you,"

By the end of the week I was allowed to go home and by "_allowed to go home_" I mean allowed to go to Forks instead of being forced to move to Jacksonville. I gave my mom a huge hug and kissed her goodbye, probably the last time I'd see her, before I got on the plane with Dad and Edward, Carlisle offering to drive my truck back… which wasn't actually there.

I returned to school immediately after I got back to Forks, much to everyone's annoyance- especially Charlie's and Edwards's- but I wanted to actually finish high school and not fail it because I missed finals. The day I returned to school all of the humans descended on me to ask me where I'd been and what had happened and if I was pregnant. I told them as much as I could without giving away the vampire or brain tumor stuff but by the next day everyone knew that I had a brain tumor, how, I don't know. It was okay though, it got Mike off my back and with the girl that really wanted him and Angela seemed not to be bothered by any of it, truly believing that I wasn't pregnant unlike Jessica.

Also, once we all got back to school it became apparent that May had gone missing while driving up to Forks to see me. Apparently her blue clunker had been found near Port Townsend near the ferry and no one had seen her since. It was hard for me to be as sad as I knew that I should have been and I was sorry for her family since I knew that they were so close but Carlisle assured me that this was the only way without telling her parents outright and giving the vampires away.

Much to my annoyance I wasn't allowed to actually see May at all in the two weeks that followed my return to Forks due to the fact that she was a newborn and they weren't sure whether she could control herself completely. However, according to Edward, May had developed a few gifts like he, Alice and Jasper had; she could sense a person's desires- this one she wanted to keep to herself so she made Edward promise not to tell- and create illusions around their desires, which she apparently used often on the family, especially Emmett.

Edward, having read her mind, seemed to think that May had a bit of a crush on the big lug, not that I was surprised to be honest, especially when Edward told me that she was constantly teasing him like I did with Edward, although May was a much more _physical _creature. Edward also knew that Emmett had taken a definite shine to my best vampire friend and Edward had caught him thinking about her a great deal and often offered to watch her for the rest of the family. I simply rolled my eyes at this.

Finally the day came for graduation for all of us.

The day before Alice had been kind enough to help me dye the roots of my hair purple again, though it ended up being a different purple and because of the intense smell of the hair dye I ended up with a headache on that day. I don't remember most of it but I do remember Charlie, Carlisle and Esme all sitting proudly in the audience as each of us made out way across the stage. I had only just gotten my diploma and was headed down the stairs and off the stage when I felt a tingling go up my spine that I now associated with seizures before half of my body went limp. Edward caught me of course, and sat me down behind the stage as Carlisle and Charlie came rushing over to us, the rest of the room buzzing as the people on stage tried to continue. I was fine and after about five minutes I was able to get up on my own and go sit back down in my seat with Edward and watch the rest of the graduation.

After the graduation, however, was very interesting. I was walking with my dad, headed out of the large throng of people when Jacob suddenly appeared, all dressed up.

"Hey, Jacob," I smiled, leaving my dad to walk over to him and give him a massive hug. "Come to visit your truck?"

"Nah, came to see you," he smiled, though I could tell there was something he wasn't telling me, making him look uncomfortable.

"Hey, Andy," Dad said, looking between us. "I'm gonna go get the truck,"

"Kay," I nodded before I turned back to Jacob. "So what's up?"

"My dad paid me to come talk to you," he said, looking embarrassed out of his mind. "Twenty bucks,"

"Well let's hear it,"

"Just don't get mad, okay?" Jacob said, looking at me finally. "… He wants you to break up with your boyfriend. It's just, he said, quote; '_We'll be watching you_.'"

We both busted out laughing... even though I had a bit of a better reason not to.

"Okay," I chuckled after calming down. "Well, tell him, thanks… and to pay up,"

"Okay," Jacob nodded, smiling. "It's been good to see you,"

"You too," I smiled.

"_Andy_,"

I looked up as Edward appeared out of nowhere, taking my elbow into his hand as he looked over at Jacob with a weird territorial look on his face.

"Hey, Edward," I smiled despite the tension in the air. "This is Jacob. He and I used to be baking buddies back when we were kids,"

Either Jacob didn't get it or he was too busy glaring back at Edward.

"Guess I'll see you around, Andy," Jacob told me, glancing down at me before his eyes moved back to Edward again, who was standing stiffly at my side.

"Sure, sure," I smiled before I broke away from Edward to give Jacob a kiss on the cheek. "See you when you can drive _legally_,"

Jacob just rolled his eyes at me and gave me an awkward one armed hug. "If your dad can't catch me it doesn't matter if I have a license,"

"I think he'd be able to catch you in your Rabbit," I smiled, scrunching my nose like a bunny before I chuckled and waved to him. "See ya,"

Edward pulled me away, tucking me under his arm as we headed for the parking lot.

"I leave you alone for five minutes and the wolves descend,"


	12. Vampire Divorce Rate

**Chapter 12 – Vampire Divorce Rate**

* * *

><p>After school ended the headaches got worse and so did the seizures.<p>

Days were almost all filled with at least a dull throb of a headache and if things got worse it was migraines while curled up in my bed biting a pillow and slamming the heel of my hand into the headboard. My dad didn't know what to do anymore and I insisted that I wouldn't leave Forks. The true reason was because of Edward, May and the rest of the Cullens but I also had some good reasons for my family; it was typically dark and cloudy there so it didn't hurt to look out the window and it was almost always rainy so the smell didn't hurt my head like the smog or fuel exhaust might in Florida.

However, I knew that it took its toll on my dad to have me there. He was constantly worried about me, not knowing what to do since he hadn't had to deal with having a child around the house for a long time. It probably didn't help any when the migraines got really bad and I kept yelling for him and begging for him to do something.

Then the day came when Carlisle and my dad came into my room together as I woke up from a nap after a long and painful migraine- not one of my worst ones but definitely bad.

"Hey, baby, how are you?" my dad asked in a quiet voice, coming to sit down next to me, rubbing my leg through the covers.

"I'm okay," I said with a bit of a shrug, still feeling groggy. "Hey, Dr. Cullen,"

"Hey, Andy," he smiled, giving me a bit of a pitying look.

"What's going on?"

"Andy… Dr. Cullen came over to talk to me about some options for you," my dad began, making me question where this was going. "You know that I don't know what to do with you now that thinks are getting worse. I try but I know you're suffering,"

I didn't say anything to this, just let him continue.

"So, because you've been dating his boy and you don't want to go to a hospital, Dr. Cullen offered to have you come live with them for a while,"

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. My dad was _offering_ to have me go live with my boyfriend and his family? Maybe these headaches were affecting my hearing too.

"What?"

My dad looked flustered and a little guilty now, looking down at the quilt on my bed. "I'm not trying to get rid of you, Andy, I just want what's best for you. You won't go to your mom and you know she can't come here as much as she'd like to. And I can't stay with you here and you need more help than I can-"

"No, Dad," I interrupted him, slowly sitting up. "I was just surprised. I never would have thought you'd be okay with this,"

He just shrugged. "Dr. Cullen says that he can watch over you, give you doses of pain killers to help with the pain and when he's not there his wife will be there to take care of you,"

All of that transferred into; _He'll make sure you don't become a drug addict while his wife makes sure that you and Edward don't finish off your bucket list_.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" I asked him.

"Of course, I'd be coming to see you," he smiled, nudging me. "Make sure that it's not completely horrible. Make sure they aren't keeping you in the basement and feeding you bread and water,"

I smiled, remembering the few times when I was over during the summer as a kid when he'd threatened me with that.

"Though I'm sure you'd prefer only eating bread,"

I nodded. "All things are made better with bread," I told him, saying the same thing I'd told him when he'd threatened me with only feeding me bread and water.

Then I turned to Carlisle.

"Are you sure it's alright? I might be a little more trouble than the average broken arm,"

"It would be no trouble at all. We'd love to have you come live with us," he smiled, showing me that apparently it was okay to have me over now that May was under some degree of control.

After a long conversation amongst the three of us it was decided that I would stay at the Cullen's and that Dad would see me as much as possible. I helped Edward, Alice and Dad pack up what I'd need as if it were a sleepover, packing a bag for me while lounged on my bed. Dad wanted to come with me the day I left for the Cullen's but I told him I wasn't very good at goodbyes and that he should stay. No need him getting eaten by my best friend.

Edward drove me in his Volvo while Alice sat in the back, gushing about how much she liked May and how the two of them had decided to buy me new clothes whether I liked it or not. I told her that was fine as long as she didn't throw away my old ones on pain of a silent treatment toward her. The whole time Edward just chuckled at the two of us, rolling his eyes as he reached out a hand to hold my still bandaged one.

But when we finally reached their house things got really quiet as the two of them watched me watch the house. I couldn't wait to see May, it'd been too long since I'd seen her when it came to normal circumstances but we were talking about her nearly dying and narrowly surviving by turning into a vampire. It felt like I hadn't seen her in years.

Edward helped me out of the car and held my hand, Alice coming to stand at my other side as we headed up the stairs and stepped through the door. The whole family was standing by the time we came to the door, all of them looking at me happily though Jasper and Emmett were looking in a different direction.

Standing in the center of their group was a tall- but not as tall as Emmett- girl with waist length brown hair with red highlights that I didn't remember her having before. Her figure was thin but very muscular- much to her annoyance when she'd been a human since it gave her a bit thicker shape despite the thinness- making her look more like a cat than Edward sometimes seemed when he crouched or ran. She tan Spanish skin was a bit darker than before though it still managed to look a bit pale, the dark circles under her eyes making her look tired. But what surprised me the most was that her chocolate brown eyes were no longer brown. They were blood red.

"Andy!" May grinned, her voice a rich velvety sound that reminded me of orchestra music.

She ran toward me with vampire speed, suddenly appearing in front of me with a bright smile, displaying bright white vampire teeth.

"How you doing?"

"Fine," I smiled, though I was unsure. "How are you?"

"Fantastic," she grinned, suddenly jumping forward and giving me a hug.

The whole room froze and in less than a second everyone dove for May, ripping her off of me as I heard her snarl and felt her cold breath on my neck. I was shoved behind Edward, Alice holding my elbow as I watched Emmett grab May in a bear hug as she snarled, trying to eat me.

"Did you just try to _eat me_?!" I exclaimed as adrenaline began to pump through my system.

May stopped fighting me and returned to being the girl I was used to, looking shocked at me as if she hadn't done anything. "You used to bite _me_ all the time,"

"Yeah but I didn't have _venomous fangs_ at the time!"

"Speaking of fangs; where are _my_ fangs?" she asked, seeming even more bipolar now than she had when she'd been human, using her free forearm to reach around Emmett's arms and touch her teeth as if she'd be able to find the sharp points she was looking for.

"Vampires don't have fangs apparently," I told her, feeling a bit calmer with the easy banter that had once been normal for us.

"What the fuck?!"

"I know right!"

The two of us smiled at each other before the air grew thick and the two of us looked at our protectors and/or captors. "I think we're good," we said together, making each other chuckle.

Emmett slowly put her down while Alice let me go, however Edward continued to stand in front of me, watching May carefully.

"I'm sorry I tried to bite you," May said, looking shy now.

"It's alright," I shrugged. "No blood, no foul,"

At this Edward looked back at me as if I was crazy.

"You're boyfriend doesn't like me very much," May smirked, pointing to him. "He's been freaking out about having you come to live here. I think it's cute,"

"Once you get to know him he thaws out," I promised her. "Remember when I called you after my first day of school?"

May laughed, the sound seeming to daze everyone for a moment, especially Emmett. "Oh yeah, he's the '_if looks could kill_' guy. I forgot about that,"

May smiled and stared at me, her red eyes doing something strange as the pupil seemed to dilate as she looked at me. I stared at her, confused about what was going on with her eyes, finding it utterly creepy. It didn't sound all that weird but when eyes did that on their own accord, and if their red, it was very creepy. Could vampires have seizures too? After a long moment, her eyes went back to normal and she gave me the same confused look. Edward glanced down at me as well.

"Did you not just see that?" he asked me.

"See what? Her creepy eye thing?"

"I was trying to show you an illusion," May told me like it was obvious.

"Well if the illusion was your eyes dilating it was pointless," I said, feeling strange that everyone was looking at me with a bit of surprise now.

"You blocked her out," Edward seemed to murmured to himself. "It's the same way I can't hear your thoughts,"

"Really? You can't hear her thoughts?" May repeated before she looked over at me. "Lucky. It's weird when I'm day dreaming and he tells me to stop,"

I couldn't help but chuckle about that.

"Why don't we go get you set up in Edward's room?" Esme suddenly spoke up, appearing next to me, taking my elbow and my suitcase. "I think you've had enough excitement today,"

I smiled at her and nodded, allowing her to lead me to the stairs.

"Can I help her unpack?" May asked excitedly, more so asking Jasper than Edward who seemed to glare at her a bit.

Jasper shook his head. "Ah don' think so. Ah think you've pressed yourself enough today,"

She frowned at him, annoyed before she turned to me and winked. "See you later,"

"As long as you're not stalking me outside the window," I told her, making her glare a bit at me as I reminded her of a creepy boy that had once had a crush on her back in grade school. He didn't stalk her but he was certainly creepy enough to have done it which was when my jokes started.

"You're mean," she wined.

"You tried to bite me,"

"You always used to bite me!"

"I didn't have venomous fangless teeth!"

"Don't hate on my teeth!"

I just rolled my eyes and let Esme lead me upstairs, Edward not far behind, taking me from Esme and whispering something to her before she nodded and disappeared down the stairs. I gave him a curious look before I allowed him to follow me to his room, him carrying my heavy suitcase.

I was surprised by what I found in his room.

"There's a bed,"

He shrugged. "I thought you might need one to sleep in,"

It wasn't just a bed, it was a fancy canopy bed with a golden overly fluffy down comforter with a thousand overly fluffy pillows near the head of the bed. It was sat perfectly in the center of the room, the headboard keeping the pillows from falling onto the floor. Thankfully my favorite black leather couch was still in its place and I was almost determined to sleep on the couch just to show that he was being overly sweet in getting me a bed when he didn't sleep at all.

"I think an air mattress would have sufficed," I told him, poking the fluffiness of the comforter to watch it jump back up before I fell back into the black leather couch.

"Is this too much?" he asked, gesturing to the bed.

"Yes," I nodded. "…But it can stay,"

"Good," he smiled, sitting down beside me. "I wouldn't want to you miss your favorite piece of furniture while you're here,"

I giggled as he kissed me on the forehead but our cute moment was interrupted as I heard May yell up to us; "_Ew_!"

Edward pulled away, hiding his irritation behind his smile as he looked over at the door. "She's certainly an interesting one,"

"She is _my_ friend after all," I shrugged, grabbing him by the front of the shirt so that he was facing me again. "Just think of her as a new sister. A _real_ sister,"

"I already have Alice," Edward argued.

"Yes but she'd the sweet kind you get along with," I explained. "_May_ is the kind that annoys the hell out of you until you give her a noogy and get in trouble with your parents for it,"

"_Hey_!" May yelled up to me.

"You know I'm right!" I yelled down to her.

"_Yeah_," was her sad reply as she surrendered.

Edward and I just chuckled before I pulled him in for a kiss, a real kiss that left both of us breathless despite one of us not needing air.

As time went by I got worse and so did the pain. Some days were better than others and some were worse… much worse. On good days I'd been running around the house, teasing May about her fangless teeth and making her gag, kissing Edward senseless, making Jasper really uncomfortable when he was in the same room as us. But on bad days I would be curled up beside Edward crying as my head felt like it was trying to outgrow my skull. Not even Percocet could help me. And then there were the days that were caught in between, with just the dull ache of a headache but the nauseating dizziness that would spring up out of nowhere.

One day, I woke up with my face buried in Edward's chest, the cold of his skin making me feel better until I felt the need to head to the bathroom. I went to get up, siting up too fast before I suddenly stopped, dropping my head down to try to get my head to stop throbbing.

"The altitude hurts," I moaned.

"We aren't even that far up," Edward said, confused as he placed a cool hand on the back of my neck.

"I mean the distance from my head to the floor," I moaned, finally getting my head to stop throbbing so that I could head to the bathroom.

Once I was finished with my business I was met by Edward at the door to his room, looking guiltily down at me with dark brown-ish eyes. "Andy-"

"Go eat," I told him before he could finish. "I'll be fine here,"

Edward sighed, still looking guilty for leaving me before he gently kissed me on the head and disappeared. Not five minutes later my stomach began to grumble loudly, sending me downstairs where I was met by five pairs of golden eyes and a pair of red eyes, all giving me pitying looks.

"Stop it," I growled without looking any of the Cullens or May in the eye as I walked past them toward the kitchen. "I see you waiting for me to faint and if you don't stop it I'll pretend to faint anyway,"

"We can't help it," May chuckled, though the smile that followed didn't reach her blood red eyes as she looked me over.

I know what she saw, an overly skinny sickly thing that looked more like a poorly made scarecrow than an eighteen year old girl.

"I always said you rarely ate but this is getting ridiculous, sweetie,"

"Ya'll need to stop worrying about me," I told all of them more than just May, trying to look strong as I put my hands on my hips. "You just focus on having fun being an immortal mosquito with your almost real life Derek Morgan,"

May growled deep in her chest at me, making my eyes go wide a little before I grinned at her and wiggled my eyebrows. I continued past her on my way to the kitchen where I grabbed a bun before heading out to the porch to my favorite chair. I sighed as I dropped down heavily onto the chair, feeling the energy that I had been storing up to make the walk down to the porch leave me as I leaned my head back, closing my eyes. However, even as I laid back with my eyes closed and even as I put my hands to my head and let out big breaths, nothing seemed to get rid of the dizziness.

"Are you alright?" Edward asked an hour or two later, having returned from his hunt.

"I'm fine," I replied.

"Then I hope you're ready for your father,"

I groaned.

My father continued to come as much as he possibly could which was almost every day. It hurt to know, when I woke up after an agonizing migraine, that he'd heard me in that pain and had had to leave because of it. But he tried, coming for an hour or two, forcing May to hide though Emmett was never too far off to give her some company.

At one point, weeks into my stay with the Cullens, though I barely remembered the episode, I had had one of my worst days, a day that my dad had been forced to leave. I was curled up against Edward out on the porch, crying in agony when I started to beg him to kill me. I don't remember anything but the pain but apparently I begged him for a good ten minutes until Jasper came out and put me into such a calm state that I passed out. When I woke up I was in Edward's room, stuffed beneath the pile of covers, Edward sitting on the end of the bed with his back to me. I could tell something was wrong instantly by the way his shoulders were hunched over and strained.

"Edward?" I called, though my voice came out raspy so it was hard for even _me_ to understand what I said. "Edward?" I asked again after clearing my throat.

"Any one of us could change you," he suddenly said without turning to look at me. "You are family and we don't want to lose you any more than May does,"

I looked up at Edward, surprised. "But you're the one who said that becoming a vampire sucks out your mortal soul and turns you into a mindless bloodsucker- just like Louis would say I might add,"

"Louis de Pointe du Lac?" Edward asked with a broken chuckle, though he still didn't turn. "Yes… but I know that you're suffering, Andy, and I don't think I could handle another day like today,"

"Like today?" I asked, confused.

He turned back to me with eyes that looked like they should have been black and rimmed with watery red. His eyes held such agony that it made me gasp and get up to crawl over to him, putting my arms around him to fight off whatever had put him in such pain.

"What happened?"

"You don't remember today?" he asked and I just shook my head which was pressed against his neck. "You asked me to kill you,"

I froze before pulling away from him, looking him in the eye. It was true apparently, though everything from earlier that morning and today was in pain filled fog to me.

"I'm so sorry,"

Edward just looked away from me. "It's not your fault. You were in pain,"

"I was but I shouldn't have-"

"Carlisle would never take the life of someone who had another option, one that had a second chance," Edward interrupted me, needing to get this out. "He'll change you if you ask him. Alice would probably do it too,"

"You're giving me the choice of joining the family and becoming your sister?" I asked, confused as to why he was telling me all of this.

Edward looked away from me, pain plain on his face before he continued. "If that is what you want. I don't want you to feel like I'm forcing you to be mine,"

I scooted closer to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my head on his shoulder. "But I _want_ to be yours,"

He looked back at me in what I could only describe as surprise before turning in my arms so that he could see me better. "Mine?"

"Yes," I smiled.

This seemed to earn him a bit more strength and confidence because as he continued he didn't seem as small or unsure as before. "Andy. I want nothing more than for you to be alive and happy… and if that meant free and a vampire I wouldn't blink if you had Carlisle turn you. But I could offer you a lifetime with me, by my side, as my wife. I love you and I would curse you and make you the thing we are myself to have you stay with me and be forever mine," Something in my expression must have made him think that I was going to say no because he turned away from me and continued to ramble. "I'm sorry but I wanted you to know the extent of my feelings toward you, that I wanted you more than even what we have now. You don't know how long I've waited for you," He almost chuckled at the thought. "I wanted-"

"_Jelly-legs jinx_!" I suddenly shouted, earning myself the funniest surprised look I'd ever seen on Edward Anthony Masen Cullen's face. "Unjellify,"

I watched as he slowly shut his mouth, probably coming to understand that that little outburst had been my way to get him to pause so that I could try to process what all he'd just said.

"You want me… forever… as your wife?" I asked slowly, watching him carefully as he silently nodded in answer.

To this I blew out a long breath, send some stray hair flying around my face until it landed on my nose as everything began to set in.

"Goddess… You know how I feel about marriage," I growled before I decided to explain it to him in case he'd forgotten it the first time. "It's a piece of paper and it usually ruins everything,"

"Well, where I'm from, it's the way one says, '_I love you_.' And I think you'll find the vampire divorce rate is a little lower," he chuckled as he pulled me into his lap, placing a hand on my cheek, brushing away the strand of hair that had been sitting on my nose. "So marry me,"

I felt my eyes grow warm as I looked at the complete and utter love in his eyes, making me feel wanted and needed more than I'd ever felt. Slowly a tear oozed out of the corner of my eye as I lost sight of him, forcing me to blink a few times before I could see his face again.

"Yes,"

He stared at me for a long moment before understanding seemed to dawn on him. "Yes?"

I nodded to him. "Yes,"

Edward smiled at me looking a mixture of relieved and like he'd just won the lottery or finally made it to the top of Mount Everest. Either way, he kept smiling, even as he kissed me, the both of us ignoring as nearly the whole household yelled; "Finally!"


	13. Marry Me

**Chapter 13 – Marry Me**

* * *

><p>"August twenty-eighth?"<p>

"Yeah," I nodded, smiling down at Edward.

We were on the bed in his room, his head in my lap as I played with his messy brown hair.

"It's the day after my birthday- so you don't forget my birthday or our anniversary- and Alice and May said they could get the wedding together by then,"

"I'm sure they can," Edward chuckled before his face slowly became more serious. "We both know that there isn't any extreme rush but… I don't want you to have to wait and be in pain,"

Over the past few months my headaches had been getting worse. The tumor in my head was making life almost impossible and I had agreed to marry Edward in return for him turning me so that we could be together. Now it was just a matter of planning the God awful thing.

"If you are going to make me marry you, Mr. Cullen, I'm going to marry you as a human before I supposedly lose my soul," I said, letting the sarcasm drip out of my mouth. "I don't see how you could think you have no soul. To live you need a soul, to love you need a soul, and so, logically, you have a soul,"

"And so you're gonna let Alice plan the whole thing?" Edward continued, completely ignoring me except for the smile as he watched my irritated face. "The dress, the reception, the guest list. I mean, who knows who she's going to invite,"

"Does it matter?" I smiled.

"I just don't know why you're doing this,"

"What? The wedding?"

"No," he said, sitting up so that he could look at me at eye level. "You're trying to make everyone _else_ happy,"

"You're wrong," I said, shaking my head, kissing him lightly. "I've always felt out of step, like literally stumbling through my life. I've never felt normal and I realized I wasn't the second my life became like Beth's from _Little Women_. But I don't want to be normal. I've had to face death and loss and pain in your world but I've also never felt stronger and more real and more myself because it's my world too. It's where I belong,"

Edward smirked at me. "So it's not just about me?"

"No. You're just easy prey," I smiled, leaning forward as he rolled his eyes and kissed me when I was in range. "I want to tie myself to you in every way humanly possible,"

"Starting with a wedding," Edward finished.

"Yes," I smiled, giving one curt nod. "After all, I was never going to have one. Now, why not have a giant one planned by two crazy people?"

"_Hey_!" I heard both Alice and May yell, making Edward and I chuckle.

"However… I'd like to tell my family," I said slowly.

Edward sighed and kissed me on the forehead. "Good thing I'm bullet proof,"

Telling my parents was certainly an interesting thing since my dad was insisting that Edward was just doing it because I was dying and that I shouldn't do that to him. Yeah, thanks Dad. My mom was a little bit more ecstatic, insisting that I wear her dress. I agreed, figuring it would be the only time that I'd be able to wear her dress. By the end of the month everyone was in town and I was forced to move back with my dad for the time being so that he and my mom could spend time with me and make sure that I didn't see Edward before the wedding. Alice and May- though May was hidden in the shadows since she had been turned into a vampire by a crazy hunter- seemed more than happy to go all out on this event and by the time the day came I was just as pumped as they were despite my view of weddings.

The morning of the wedding I kissed my dad goodbye as he mumbled something about a "_monkey suit_" that Alice was making him wear before I ran out and got into Alice's Porsche. She sped me off to her house and ushered me upstairs to her bedroom where May, Emmett and Jasper were all waiting. May and Alice shoved the boys out of the room before sticking me in the torture chair and tried to make me look less like a near death/sick person. This had always been May's dream, getting me in a chair and prettying me up with a load of makeup, and then Alice's dream had always been to dress me up like a Barbie doll, so they were both getting their wish.

"What did we say about beauty sleep?" Alice asked with an annoyed sigh.

"Sorry," I told them. "Being sick and nervous does this to you,"

Two hours later I could hear the commotion downstairs as guests started piling into the Cullens' poor house, most of them I didn't know thanks to Alice who'd invited them all. As time slowly went by my nerves began to creep up on me despite my telling them not to. Stupid nerves.

"Oh Andy!" I spun around as my mom suddenly came through the door, her eyes tearing up as she saw me, Dad coming to stand in the doorway. "Are you going to get married with purple hair?"

"Thanks, Mom," I groaned, annoyed now but she just smiled.

"I'm kidding, honey. You look beautiful,"

"Thanks, Mom,"

"We have a little something we wanted to give you before…" My mom couldn't seem to say it so just turned to my dad. "Charlie, where's the box?" My dad rummaged in his pockets for a minute and then produced a small white box, which he handed to my mom who turned to me with an evil little smile on her face before she lifted the lid and held it out to me.

"Something old," she informed me.

"Besides your mother," Dad added, shoving his hands in his pockets as Mom smacked him hard, making him grimace before he continued. "They were your Grandma Swan's. We had a jeweler replace the paste stones with peridot. Your birthstone,"

Inside the box were two heavy silver combs with lime green peridots clustered into intricate floral shapes atop the teeth.

My eyes grew warm with tears as I looked between the two of them. "Mom. Dad… you shouldn't have,"

"That's something old," Alice said as she came out of the closet with an intricately braded blue bracelet in her hand. "And here is something blue… I _may_ want that back," she told me, making it completely obvious that this was May's as a way for her to be with me when she wasn't allowed to be seen. "And the shoes are new,"

"Renee, it's time you got settled down there," Esme said as she peeked around the corner, giving me a small smile.

"Is it really time already?" Renee said to herself, sounding sadder than surprised as she turned to me with tears in her eyes. "Give me a hug before I go down,"

I gave her a hug which nearly forced the air out of me before she sniffled and left with Esme, leaving just Alice, my Dad and I… and May who was hiding in the closet.

"Dad, can you wait outside for a second?" I asked.

He nodded and headed out the door. "I'll be at the stairs when you're ready,"

I waited until the door closed before I ran to the closet and threw it open to find May sitting crisscross-applesauce on the ground, picking at something on the carpet. She looked up at me in surprise before she saw the tears in my eyes and instantly held out her arms for me to sit on her. I didn't waste any time falling into her lap and wrapping my arms around her cold neck. She didn't seem to mind and she didn't attack me- much to my surprise and happiness- but just chuckled as she wrapped her arms around my too skinny waist. When I heard Alice clear her throat I looked up and held out my hand, pulling her down to sit beside us, not wanting her to feel left out.

"You're going to ruin your makeup," Alice murmured, making me chuckle against my will.

"Having cold feet?" May asked.

"No," I muttered, feeling like a little girl. "But I'm never going to see any of these people again after this,"

"You never liked any of them in the first place," May argued, forcing me to laugh. "And your mom and dad will have to deal with losing you sooner or later,"

"I could be dead in the next month," I cried.

"Edward won't let that happen. His deepest desire is to have you with him always. Very romantic for a guy,"

"If it hadn't been finding him I would be dead within the next month," I mumbled.

"But you _did_ find him. This is meant to be,"

"Promise?"

"Promise,"

"You aren't making this up?"

"No,"

"You aren't mad at me for getting you ripped away from your family and turned into a vampire by a sadistic vampire?" I asked, to which I felt her stiffen.

"Look," May sighed. "I'm going to miss my family and becoming a snack for a vampire that was actually after you was not how I imagined becoming a vampire, but I'm glad. I get to live forever and get to hang out with the hottest vampire I've ever seen,"

"Not that you've seen that many," I murmured as I pulled away from her, wiping my eyes.

"Shut up," May laughed. "My only regret is that I didn't come down here while I had the chance so that I could get swept away like you did,"

"And you regret not coming to my wedding," I added, giving her a look.

May rolled her eyes. "Alice will take my place. How does it look, Alice?"

We both looked over at Alice as she closed her eyes and grew still before a smile lit her face and opened her eyes to look at us. "It's going to be magnificent… but first we have to fix her makeup,"

We all laughed as they stuck me back into the chair and cleaned me up as my head began to throb softly. I ignored it though, determined not to let a headache- and what was sure to become a migraine- ruin this day. After that May kissed me on the cheek before we tried and failed to do our secret handshake, one that seemed to be a secret even to us since we had no idea what we were doing. Then Alice led me to my dad who was still waiting at the top of the stairs for me.

He smiled at me as I came toward him and held me up once I finally reached him.

"Easy, Andy," Dad told me before looking over at Alice. "You think she's gonna make it?"

"Yes,_ she's_ going to make it," I told him with a mock-glare.

"It's my turn," Alice chirped before she looked up at my dad. "Count to ten and follow me,"

With that she disappeared down the stairs where Jasper was waiting for her before heading off down the aisle, where I couldn't see her.

"Dad?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Yeah, Andy?"

"Do you still disapprove?" I asked slowly, afraid of the answer.

"Of you and Edward?" he asked, looking down at me.

I looked up at him. "Of all of this. Dating him, living with him, _marrying him_. I'm going to die soon after all,"

Dad gave me a guilty and sad look before he sighed. "Andy. No matter what I will always be proud of you,"

"But do you _approve_?" I asked, more power in my voice, needing to know.

Slowly, he nodded. "I approve… especially if you and him haven't done anything yet,"

I couldn't help the laugh that exploded from my mouth, a relieved one that made my shoulders feel ten times lighter.

"I love you, baby," Dad smiled as he leaned down and kissed me on top of the head.

"Love you too, Dad," I smiled.

"Now we better go because I think we missed our cue,"

"Yeah," I nodded.

The both of us hurried down the stairs arm in arm until we came into view of the crowd waiting for us, all of them turned to see whether or not we were coming down. Alice definitely looked a little peeved to have her plans thrown off a bit… but Edward didn't seem too worried. My silver grey eyes stayed glued to his golden yellow ones as my dad led me down the aisle and right up to him, handing me off to Edward before going to take his seat.

Thanks to May being on my side for this one particular argument, we had the priest, Mr. Weber, say my own fancy version of vows that were less religious and felt more binding, following the lines of a Celtic prayer I'd once read in a book. Didn't sound romantic if I said it like that, but the words of the prayer itself made for much better vows when mixed with the traditional.

And then came the words; "I do,"

"You may now kiss the bride,"

I smiled happily standing still as he leaned down and kissed me sweetly, a short kiss, but a kiss that conveyed all of the love that should be conveyed in that particular kiss, making my stomach churn with warmth and my cheek heat up. Then, being me, as he pulled away I grabbed his tie and pulled him back down toward me and gave him another good kiss before letting him go. This made the whole room laugh and I'm sure that if Edward had still been human he'd have been blushing.

Instantly the room broke into an uproar and the first person to reach me was my mother who took me into a huge bone crushing hug, followed by my dad, Alice, Angela, Esme, Cora, Jessica, Mike, Eric, Tyler, Lauren and a few people I didn't know, including a golden eyed blonde I assumed was Tanya, one of the Denali clan up north. Yeah, I didn't much like her.

Once I finally made my way back to Edward he led me to the backyard which looked like a fairy garden, which was complete when Alice danced in after us. She led everyone to their seats, making sure Edward and I were sat done before she ushered Esme and Carlisle up to the stage to start the toasts.

"And I would like to thank Renee and Charlie for bringing such a wonderful person into the world and into our lives," Esme began as Carlisle came up onto the stage to stand beside her. "We will cherish and protect her forever,"

"Andy. Edward," Carlisle smiled looking down at us as he wrapped an arm around Esme. "I just wish you the happiest marriage and the longest life together forever,"

As Esme and Carlisle walked off the stage Alice danced on, Jasper by her side, though he seemed very reluctant to be there.

"Well, I personally always knew this was going to happen," Alice began, making everyone chuckle while I just roll my eyes as I realized she meant it. "And now that you're my sister, Andy, you're going to have to get over your aversion to fashion,"

"Comic book shirts are fashionable," I murmured to Edward, who chuckled.

"And no, comic book shirts are not fashionable," Alice finished, obviously having heard me, making me glare at her. "I'm really excited for both of you. Andy, you've become my best and closest friend and I'm so happy to see you as a part of my family,"

Emmett was next, practically shooing Jasper and Alice off the stage as he stepped up to the mike and smiled down at me evilly.

"Congratulations, Andy, bro," Emmett began, making me roll my eyes at him. "And I hope you've gotten enough sleep over the past eighteen years, Andy, cause you won't be getting anymore for a long while,"

"Pervert!" I yelled, making everyone around me chuckle uncomfortably as he waved me off.

"I love you two, despite saying that. Good luck, guys," he smiled, raising his glass before he went and sat back down and the Denali clan members took his place.

"Andy, Edward," Carmen, the Denali version of Esme, began. "I wish you a life full of joy, beauty and love,"

"Edward and Andy," Tanya began, stepping up to the microphone, making me get anxious and Edward tense beside me. "I just wanted to say how happy I am for both of you and for a very long time I thought I knew who was right for Edward but having seen you both today and having seen how very beautiful and how extremely happy you both look I can't wish you anything but huge joy and love forever,"

Next was the last female in their group, Kate, even though there were supposed to be three, she was also blonde but definitely looked more badass than beautiful. "Best wishes to the happy couple. The two of you have been given the most valuable thing a person can be given in this life. I trust that you will appreciate it and each other every day you have together,"

Next Eric jumped on stage, apparently not shy about going on after the line of gorgeous, well-spoken vampires.

"Congratulations to you guys and I hope you guys have a great life together," Eric began, as energetic as always. "Thank you, Edward, for stealing Andy away from me so that I can- you know- meet my love of my life, Angela. Farewell," he smiled, giving a full armed wave as he hoped down and headed back to his table where Angela was blushing madly.

Next up was Jessica which I instantly blocked out of my memory permanently after she blatantly made sure that Edward had oppositions after I was dead. And then there was Mike Newton, the boy with the crush that wouldn't quit. I wasn't sure if dreaded hearing his speech or looked forward to it. Either was I sat back and waited as he took a long sip of his champagne and turned to look at me.

"Clarinda Swan," Mike said simply, as if it explained everything, but then it made sense as he continued on with his speech. "Literally translates to 'Bright swan'. And that's what you are, Andy, but you never knew it, you never felt like that, you always felt like a- uh…" Now it was awkward. "You know what I mean, you- you always felt like an award duckling. And I don't know why, Andy, because you're perfect. You're perfect, you really are and you always have been,"

Sweet… but awkward.

Next was my dad who sauntered on stage with a nearly empty champagne glass.

"Edward is going to be a great husband," my dad began. "I know this because I'm a cop and cops know things… Like how to hunt someone to the ends of the earth," To this everyone chuckled. "Yeah… I know how to use a gun," Now there was just uncomfortable laughter. "I don't know what to say, kid," my dad sighed after blowing out a long breath. "You're the only thing I've ever really worried about and, I've got to be honest, I've never been more worried than I am right now. Edward, just take care of her. That's all that I ask,"

He just shrugged and was about to walk off stage when I shoved my chair back and ran around the table until I leaped up and hugged him as I started crying against my will. "Thanks, Dad,"

"Sure, sure," he chuckled, leading me back to my seat beside Edward before he went and sat down himself.

Next was my mom, who looked half drunk and half sobbing as she walked up on stage and turned to smile down at me with weepy eyes.

"My darling Andy," my mom smiled before her eyebrows drew together and looked over at Edward with a smirk. "And beautiful Edward," Everyone seemed to laugh at that, half of them understanding what she meant and the vampire just thinking she was being silly. "I wish you all of the happiness in the world and many, many, many adventures together in your life to come. I love you,"

I thought we were done, dropping my eyes to my plate as my head began to throb at the bright white, but suddenly Edward stood and made his way on stage with his champagne glass, ready to make a speech.

"It's an extraordinary thing to meet someone who you can bare your soul to, who will except you for what you are," Edward began, looking right at me. I felt my cheeks heat up as tears started to fall down my face again. "I've been waiting for what seems like a very long time to get beyond what I am and with Andy I feel like I can finally begin. So I'd like to propose a toast to my beautiful bride. No measure of time with you will be long enough. So let's start with forever,"

Everyone raised their glasses and toasted, and even Edward to my surprise, drank.

I grinned at him through the tears and walked past him as he came off the stage, moving to stand in front of the huge group of people. My mind went blank for a moment, the only thing being my headache as I wiped away the tears that were probably messing up my makeup.

"Gosh, you guys, you made me cry," I chuckled, everyone else doing the same. "I haven't been around that long but I'd like to think that I've absorbed a good amount of wisdom from the people I've met throughout my years, enough to know that without a doubt, Edward Cullen is the guy for me. He seems to think that this '_bright swan_' with a big beak is worth the time," I said, gesturing down to myself. "I've always stumbled around in life, feeling like Beth from _Little Women_, not really knowing what I was doing in life until something told me that my number was up… multiple times for those of you who remember the deal with Tyler's van," I got a few chuckles. "But when I came here someone caught me, saved me and told me that I wasn't stumbling, I was just headed in the wrong direction,"

By now I was crying, my voice breaking, making it hard to speak.

"Even though I won't be around much longer I'm proud to have gotten to fall in love with such a beautiful person, who cares so much about little ol' me,"

I wiped away the tears and smiled down at him.

"And since I don't have a champagne glass," I chuckled. "Here's a toast to my knight in shining armor, Edward," With that I saluted him as everyone else chuckled and drank, giving me a moment to collect myself as my head throbbed a little bit more.

After eating… well, most of us ate… we all got up as the music began, Alice shooing Edward and I onto the dance floor for our first dance. Edward ducked his head into the top of my head as he lead me out to the dance floor, his hand on the small of my back, his thumb making soothing motions there. I, on the other hand, felt my cheeks heat up as I tried to keep my eyes on the same button on his jacket as we walked, only losing sight of it once before he turned toward me, taking my hand as I placed my other on his shoulder, waiting for the "our song" to come on, a song May had chosen for us.

"_Only you…_"

I started laughing. This had to be my favorite song, that song that you never think about until it comes on and you start screaming; "_I love this song_!" Not to mention this song had to be perfect for Edward and I… and it was by the Platters. May had had to live through my phase of playing it fifty times in a row and pretending to be the singer with the hairbrush microphone.

"_Can make this world seem right… Only you… Can make the darkness bright_,"

Edward smiled crookedly and we slowly began to dance, mostly swaying slowly together until Edward suddenly pulled me to the side and dipped me before twirling me around and back into his arms. I gasped before I laughed tucking my head under his chin once I was there again as we moved around the dance floor. I pressed my forehead against his shoulder, the coldness easing into my skin and softening the pain I felt, hoping that I be able to pretend throughout the night that I wasn't in pain.

"_You're my dream come true. My one and only you_," Edward sang along with the recording, making me smile into his chest, pulling away to see a mischievous smile on his mouth.

"I used to do that,"

"What? Sing?"

I nodded. "It was horrible. At five I pretended to be a female-Elvis, did the microphone/hairbrush thing, made my dad be the backup singer," Edward chuckled at that. "May always said that if I ever got married she'd play this at my wedding. Guess she wasn't lying,"

"And what song will you play at her and Emmett's wedding?" he asked, leaning close to my ear so that he could whisper it as softly as possible.

"Something horrible," I grinned evilly.

"_Andy_,"

"Okay, okay…" I sighed. "I've always thought about _As It Seems_,"

Edward's eyebrows drew together. "I haven't heard of that,"

"It's new," I explained.

Right then the song ended and the two of us were almost instantly separated, Edward going to dance like Fred Astaire with everyone he danced with, and me to dance with everyone despite my aversion to dancing. At one point Emmett ended up dancing with me, both of us jumping around like idiots when Emmett broke the silence (minus the music, everyone else talking and noise).

"So… does May like music?"

I stopped and let the giant smile spread across my face. "Yes, she likes music,"

"… What type of music?"

"Emmett," I sighed. "I know you like her,"

"Like who?" he asked, looking slightly afraid.

"My best friend," I told him to which he began to shake his head. "Emmett, if you want into her pants you're going to have to pry your way into her heart,"

"Very funny," he growled. "I'm not all sex and fun, you know,"

"No," I agreed. "You're also muscle,"

Emmett rolled his eyes.

"You need to show her you like her," I told him to which he scrunched his nose. "How about you go check on her? Ask her to dance?"

"You think she'll want to?" Emmett asked, glancing back up at the house.

"With you? Definitely," I smiled, pushing his shoulder. "Go get her, tiger,"

He smiled at me before turning away, looking up at the house before ducking his head down and disappearing through the crowd. I smiled after him before Phil came over and danced with me through the next song, telling me how beautiful I looked, reminding him how my mom had looked when they'd gotten married. I thanked him before the song changed and Eric suddenly appeared insisting I dance with him to _Hey, Soul Sister_ and soon Angela, Mike and Jessica were all dancing with us, sort of a non-sexual foursome. After that was apparently Mike's turn, sweeping me off to dance with him until I suddenly spun and ended up in the arms of… gulp… my husband.

"You really don't like him, do you?" I chuckled, placing my forehead on his shoulder again so that the throbbing would calm.

"Not when I have to listen to his thoughts. He's lucky I didn't kick him out. Or worse,"

"Yeah, right,"

"Have you had a chance to look at yourself?" he asked me as if I was being silly.

"Um," I thought about it. "I guess not. I mean, I got to see my head. Why?"

"Then I suppose you don't realize how utterly, heartbreakingly beautiful you are tonight," Edward smiled, spinning the both of us around, moving past Alice and Jasper who looked like a nowadays Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. "I'm not surprised Mike's have difficulty with improper thoughts about a married woman. I _am_ disappointed that Alice and May didn't make sure you were forced to look in a mirror,"

"You are very biased, you know,"

"Biased, am I?" he smiled, spinning me around so that my back was pressed against his chest so that I was facing the window of the house that reflected the party back like a long mirror. Edward pointed to the couple in the mirror directly across from us.

My eyes went to Edward first, seeing him in his handsome tux, his brown hair slicked, making him look a bit nerdy and boy-like though I'd never tell him. I then looked down at the purple-haired beauty at his side, blocking my view of the rest of him. Her skin was cream and roses, her eyes huge with excitement and framed with thick lashes that had been darkened even further with mascara, some of it having been smudged under her eyes from when she'd been crying. Then the dress; it was almost all lace having been the style when my mother had gotten married, but it had been tailored down to fit her skinny body, cut so skillfully that her body looked elegant and graceful- while it was motionless, at least.

I smiled slowly, making her smile slowly. I raised a hand, making her raise a hand. Then Edward leaned down and kissed the top of my purple hair and I watched as Edward's did the same to the purple beauty as a bright grin appeared on her face the same moment one appeared on my own.

"That's me?"

"Who else would I be holding, love?" he whispered in my ear, kissing my temple.

"Every other single prettier girl in the world… especially ones with awesome purple hair," I told him, leaning my head back onto his shoulder, my heading angling back so that I could see the stars up in the sky.

"No one is more beautiful to me than you are," he whispered to me, kissing my temple again.

"Even when I'm having a migraine?"

"Even when you're having a migraine,"

"Even when I'm babbling about comic books?"

"Even when you're babbling about comic books,"

"Even with my purple hair?"

"Especially with your purple hair,"

"Even with blonde hair?"

He stopped and turned me around to face him. "You're blonde?"

I couldn't help by laugh at him. "Yes, I'm blonde,"

This seemed to be new information for him because he stared at me for a long moment, seeming to imagine me as a blond before a soft, crooked smile appeared on his face. "Yes… even as a blond, no one is more beautiful to me than you,"

"Good," I smiled, pulling me forward by his tie to kiss him deeply.

I'd pretty much forgotten when I was when I heard Alice call; "Andy! It's time!"

I felt a brief flicker of irritation with my new sister for the interruption making sure to show my rebellion by gripping Edward tie even tighter and practically wrapping my body around his. Edward ignored her as well- apparently enjoying what I was doing- his lips more urgent against mine. My heart broke into a sprint and my palms were slick against his marble neck.

"Do you want to miss your plane?" Alice demanded, right next to me now. "I'm sure you'll have a lovely honeymoon camped out in the airport waiting for another flight," This, of course, was an utter lie considering we were staying within twenty miles of Forks so that we could come home tomorrow morning and I could be changed.

Edward turned his face slightly to murmur; "Go away, Alice," and then pressed his lips back to mine.

"Andy, do you want to wear that dress on the airplane?" she demanded.

Again a lie though I had no doubt that she would force me to wear this puffy dress in Edward cramped Volvo. But then again, I really didn't care.

Alice growled quietly. "I'll tell her where you're taking her, Edward. So help me, I will,"

He froze. Then he lifted his face from mine and glared at his favorite sister. "You're awfully small to be so hugely irritating,"

"I didn't pick out the perfect going-away dress to have it wasted," she snapped back, taking my hand. "Come with me, Andy,"

"You're taking me somewhere?" I asked as quietly as I could- whispering it so no one could here that I actually wasn't going to be whisked away on a honeymoon- but only as quite as my surprise would allow.

"Alice," Edward growled, glaring at her.

Alice just giggled and pulled me along as I looked back at Edward, a few chuckled from the watching guests as they believed I was just being lovesick.

Edward was taking me somewhere? He said he wasn't and we'd all agreed that I'd be changed as soon as possible because of my tumor. I mean, they already had a new home ready because of the treaty they had with the Indians on the Quileute reservation. So what was within a short-mile-radius that Edward would possibly want to take me to for one night?

Alice didn't give me much time to think on it because she had me up in her room again, May suddenly appearing, looking a little glossy eyed before she turned her bright smile on me. Then they went to work on me, quickly getting me out of my dress and into Alice's deep blue going-away ensemble. I was grateful when someone pulled the pins out of my hair and let it fall loose down my back, wavy from the braids, saving me from a hairpin headache later, regardless of the migraine already in my head.

"You've got to tell me about this one night honeymoon when you get back," May suddenly exclaimed, looking as jumpy as a school girl.

I rolled my eyes. "We aren't going to do anything,"

"Yeah right," she said, rolling her eyes right back at me.

"We _aren't_,"

She knew as well as I did that Edward and I planned on consummating our marriage once I had become a vampire so that I didn't have to have Edward sulking around and ruining my first time if he broke one of my bones… although, this isn't what was said out loud, but definitely my reason for not having sex tonight.

"Fine," she told me, though she said it with a smile on her face which made me think that she was being sarcastic. "Fine,"

I rolled my eyes at her before giving her a quick hug goodbye before I let Alice lead me down the stairs to find Edward waiting at the foot of the steps, a smile on his face as he looked up at me. Hand in hand, the two of us made our way through the crowd of people, a great deal of them throw rice at us and I was a bit annoyed when Emmett's handful went right down my shirt and he yelled; "There you go, bro, now you'll have a surprise waiting for ya," Edward and I just rolled our eyes at him before Edward kissed me on the cheek and broke away to go get the car while I went to my mom.

"He really won't tell you where he's taking you?" was the first thing she asked as she reached up and pulled some of the rice out of my hair.

"It's a surprise," I lied.

"Well, wear a hat… sunscreen," Mom told me as tears came to her eyes. "Take care of yourself,"

"I will," I promised as she hugged me close.

"I love you, Andy,"

"I love you too, Mom,"

As we pulled away I spotted Dad off by himself, the rims of his eyes visibly red from even where I was standing. I kissed Mom on the cheek before I walked over to where he was standing, my eyes on my ornate shoes until a pair of shiny black male shoes came into my line of sight.

"Dad," I smiled, looking up at him.

He smiled down at me, his hands shoved into his pockets as he rocked on his heels. "Well, at least it's not gonna be too strange, you not leaving under my roof," he told me as if that made it all better for him.

"Yeah, we both got that down," I nodded, going along with him.

"You know it'll always be your home, right?"

I smiled at him, both of us knowing that I probably wouldn't live long enough to run back home even if Edward wasn't the perfect guy, and that was only if I wasn't changed to be a vampire, which I would be.

"Right, Dad," I nodded with a soft smile, my eyes becoming warm as I reached forward and hugged him as tightly as I could without hurting him. "I love you, Dad. Forever,"

"I love you too, Andy. Always have and always will," he told me, his face buried in the top of my hair, his hot breath making my head feel almost wet.

After a long moment however, he pulled away, sniffling as he shooed me off.

"Alright, go on. Don't want to miss your plane or… whatever. Wherever it is you're going,"

"Trust me, Dad. Not knowing where it's going, it annoys me just as much as it annoys you," I told him truthfully, thinking back to what Alice had said.

"Well that's… somewhat helpful," he said, his head tilting to the side.

I smiled at him before I reached up and kissed him on the cheek before spinning around on my high heels and walked over to where Edward was waiting for me by the car, determined to not allow myself cry.

"Ready?" he asked me as he held my door open for me.

I felt like that question help more than him asking me if I was ready to leave; it asked if I was ready to leave these people behind, if I was ready to die, move on, and live the rest of my life as a vampire, if I was read to live forever with my Edward?

I nodded. "Ready,"


	14. I Have A Headache

**Chapter 14 – I Have A Headache**

* * *

><p>By the time I finally figured out where we were going my headache had become a full blown migraine that thrummed painfully in time with the radio. I was trying desperately to hide it but when a particularly pitchy song came on and I winced, Edward turned down the volume for me, taking my hand in his cold one.<p>

"Headache?" he asked.

I just nodded slowly, my eyes closing slowly as I sat back in my seat, feeling the slowly throb of my head, the pull of the car speeding forward which forced me back into my seat and the gentle feeling of Edward's thumb running across the back of my hand. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep like that because when I opened my eyes next I felt the car turning and I opened my eyes to the ocean.

"Is this where you were taking me?" I asked, excitement in my voice.

Edward just nodded, looking a little shy as he parked the car. I smiled brightly at him and ripped off my seat belt, threw open my door and stepped outside. I pulled off my heels carefully, wabbling dangerously until a cold hand grabbed my arm and held me, allowing me to get the silly heels off and throw them in a pile next to his car.

Taking his hand, I pulled Edward toward the ocean enjoying the cool air blowing around me, settling my migraine for the time being. I loved standing and watching the waves, loved the smell of the ocean; the bitter salt, the smooth water, everything. I loved how frozen my feet became in the wet sand, gasping in pain as my feet seized up as they hit the frozen. I gasped and ran away from the water, only to have it follow me and have Edward laugh at me as he scooped me up into his arms, saving me from the cold… at least that was what I thought until he walked further towards the water and dropped me back in to where I was almost thigh high. I shrieked, running toward the shore, slashing the water up onto my butt and front as I tried to get away from the water, failing miserably. When I finally made it to shore I turned back to see Edward standing in the water, his pants rolled up to above his knees, the water just a little below that.

I smiled at him, liking the look of twilight on him, making him glow a little. He turned and looked at me over his shoulder and gave me the crooked smile that made my heart flutter in my chest before he turned back around to look at the sea again. I sighed and trudged back over to him, the whole time thinking to myself; How in the world, of all the amazing women and gorgeous vampires on this earth, had _I_ been the girl to make this man happy?

I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, my cheek pressed against his spine, breathing in his clean yet musky scent.

"We should go in before you freeze, especially if you insist on holding onto an ice cube," he chuckled, laying his hands over mine.

"I'm not insisting on holding onto an ice cube. That'd be silly," I argued as he turned in the very small circle of my arms. "I'm insisting on holding onto my husband,"

Edward smiled, seeming incandescently happy. "You, Clarinda Swan, are my wife,"

"And you, dear husband, are the only one that will _ever_ get away with calling me Clarinda," I told him, leaning as far back as I could, accidently pressing my lower half against his in the process.

"And you, my lovely wife, better stop that or I'll take you right here among the waves," he said, his eyes growing dark as his eyes traveled over me.

A shiver went up my spine. "Strangely enough, that doesn't sound like a threat. Quite the opposite actually,"

At that, Edward let out a low growl that rumbled through my body before he whirled me up into his arms, a humorous shriek flying up and out of my mouth. My head throbbed painfully but I continued to laugh as his mouth descended on my throat, sucking at the skin there, probably giving me a hickie. I playfully pushed him away until he pulled back and kissed my forehead, he carrying me all the back to the car in less than a second. He set me down on the sand beside my side of the car and placed a quick peck on my lips before zooming around to the other side of the car. I rolled my eyes and pulled my shoes back on, getting them all wet and sandy in the process. I pulled open my door and relaxed back into my seat as I watched Edward's back as he sat, feet out the door, pulling on his shoes. I smiled at him and reached out, my fingertips trailing down his spine as I felt him rumble.

"You're horrible," he told me, straightening now that he had both his shoes on.

"Good. I've been practicing," I smiled as he turned, closing his door.

After that, Edward took me to what could arguably be the tallest hotel I'd ever seen- definitely the tallest within sight at the very least- and got us checked in before the two of us carried our two small bags upstairs, me having to do a human growl to get him to allow me to carry my own bag.

When we finally got up to the room however, he pulled my bag out of my hand and swept me up into his arms, my head swinging out and sending a whole new wave of blood and pain through it. I didn't let it show as he lifted me into his arms and carried me across the threshold into the hotel room.

"Is this totally necessary?" I asked him.

"I'm nothing if not traditional,"

I rolled my eyes as I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him close to me. "Says the man who is carrying me into a _hotel room_ instead a house like the tradition _actually_ dictates, and then doesn't want to get it on,"

He chuckled before catching my mouth with his, taking my breath away before pulling back to kiss down my neck. "'_Doesn't want to'_ would not be the words I would use,"

He slowly set me down and looked at the hotel room behind me, urging me to look. I turned and felt like I'd entered hotel heaven. Granted the room still had that annoying hotel feel that every room had, but it was beautiful. AND THE BED! I immediately dropped my bag and ran and jumped onto the bed, ignoring my sandy shoes. I curled up into a ball in the center of the bed, smiling at the hole I'd made in the center of the fluffy comforter and pillows. I could hear Edward warm laughed as he sat down on the edge.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"I'm not sure I ever want to get up again," I told him, wiggling a little so that I could see over the mountain of fluff to see his smiling face.

"Has this bed stolen my place in your heart?" he chuckled.

I slowly sat up, ignoring the painful throbbing as my head willed me to lower it again, and crawled toward him until our faces were less than a foot apart. "Nothing could steal your place in my heart," I told him, completely serious.

His crooked smile reappeared. "Good,"

We met in the middle, kissing each other deeply until Edward pulled away, breathing heavily despite him not needing to breath.

"If we don't stop-"

"See, now I don't like where that sentence is going," I told him, pulling him back toward me and kissing him good and senseless before he suddenly got his sense back.

"You have a headache,"

I sighed, stopping so that I could sit back and give him a mock-glare. "You see, now it's supposed to be the wife that makes that argument,"

Edward shrugged. "Sorry,"

I sighed and got up off the bed.

"I'll just change and go to sleep. After all, I'll be withering in pain tomorrow, might as well be rested," I shrugged, kissing him quickly before I walked over to my bag, opening it to find an abomination with a side of catastrophe. "Bitch!"

"What? What is it?" Edward asked, sounding worried as he walked over to me.

"That mother- That- That-" I couldn't find the right words. "GRRR!"

"What?"

"Look!" I exclaimed, holding up a red lace thong for him to see, it being one of the many other lingerie bits that filled my small duffle bag. "I don't even have a _shirt_ to change into,"

Edward chuckled, taking the thong out of my hand before flinging it down into the bag. "Can't trust vampires," he shrugged. "Trust me,"

I rolled my eyes as I sat down on the ground, taking my shoes off, allowing a great deal of sand to pour out of each. I laid back on the ground, Edward standing over me, making me feel like a ditz by the way he was looking at me.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked seriously, causing him to chuckle down at me.

"Nothing, my lovely wife, just admiring the view,"

I blushed and ducked my head, putting my hands over my face. I heard him crouch down above my head and felt his cool hands pull my hands away from my face.

"I'll miss that… the splash of color when you're embarrassed or trying to get out an idea as fast as you can or when you get overworked," he told me, bringing my hand up to kiss my palm.

"Well- when you miss it- just think of how yummy I smelled," I told him as I closed my eyes as his mouth traveled from my hand to my wrist to take a long sniff.

"Yes, that won't be something I miss," he whispered to me.

I slowly sat up and turned until we were facing each other, our eyes locking on one another's, silver-grey watching golden-yellow. In that moment I made a decision that I wasn't going to leave this hotel room a virgin, that I wanted my husband now or I would regret it later, no matter what happened. So I reached forward, placing my hand on the back of his neck and pulled him to me, kissing him deeply until he had to fall forward onto his knees so that he didn't lose his balance and fall backward. His arms wrapped around me, pulled me into him as I made sure to hold him against me and not let him go.

He broke away after a minute, trying to speak. "Andy-" I pulled his lips back to mine, ignoring the burning in my lungs and in my head. "Andy, we can't-" I ducked down and sucked on his jaw, moving up his jaw to his earlobe. "Andy- Andy, we can't. Not tonight,"

"Yes, we can," I assured him as I pulled back to look him in the eye. "You already said that you want to, didn't you?"

"Yes, but-"

Before he could finish I pulled his face to mine and kissed his ravenously, letting my hands move to the front of his shirt to unbutton it. I got three buttons done before his hands stopped mine from going any lower. I growled at him like an animal.

"No," I growled at him. "You are mine,"

"Andy, we shouldn't-"

"We should," I smiled, pulling my hands from his, smirking when I felt the lack of fight as he let me go and returned to unbuttoning his shirt. I leaned forward and kissed him hard, biting down on his lower lip gently and pulling before kissing him gently again.

"Andy," he murmured against my lips, his hands traveling down my sides to my hips.

"Yes?" I asked as my mouth went to his neck, kissing the skin that I had revealed from unbuttoning his shirt.

"W-we shouldn't do this," he told me even as his hands held my hips against his. "We should wait until you're a vampire so I d-don't hurt you,"

"Are you denying your wife?" I asked with a smirk.

"No, I'm-"

"Then stop fighting me," I interrupted, finally getting the last button done and pushing it off of his shoulders. "Please,"

I felt him sigh in annoyance before he brought a hand up and entangling it in my hair, pulling my head back so that he could kiss me on the lips. I purred against him and kissed him back with as much fervor as I could, probably heading towards slutty if anyone was watching but I didn't much care. I shivered when Edward's hands traveled up under my dress, pushing up the fabric until it was bunched up around my hips, his cold thumbs brushing against my underwear.

We eventually found ourselves on the comfy hotel bed, my back against the thick comforter, nothing but his jeans and underwear and my bra and undies separating us. My body, which felt like it had been numb my whole life, seemed to come alive as Edward's cold hands roamed up my body, making me gasp against his lips in surprise. His arms held him up on either side of me as we kissed each other, the occasional growl issuing from his chest as the occasional moan came from mine.

All of the sudden his phone started going off and both of us growled at it, Edward ducking his head down into my shoulder as I let out an involuntary whimper. I felt him reach his hand into his pocket, digging out the ringing phone before he turned it off and threw it across the room. I laughed lightly before I was cut off as he began kissing his way down my chest until he stopped at my belly button. He pulled himself up over me again until he was hovering over me, bringing a hand up to brush away a few strands of purple hair from my face, his face soft as he looked down at me.

"I don't want to hurt you,"

I gave him a half smile, placing a hand on his cheek, rubbing the pad of my thumb over his cheekbone lovingly. "I know you don't," I told him, leaning up to kiss him again.

The next morning I woke up lying on my stomach, cheek resting against my crossed arms, looking at Edward who was lying next to me on his side. He had his head propped up with one arm and the other was drawing lazy shapes on my back, leaving a cold trail on my skin.

"Your skin is so soft," he whispered, and making me smile.

"I bet you use that with all the vampire girls," I said, closing my eyes as I followed his finger as it ran down my back and then made a star shape and the circled around a vertebra of my spine.

"You will be the only vampire girl that I will ever use that on," Edward informed me, leaning forward until his lips touched my shoulder blade. "What language is your tattoo in? I can't place it,"

My eyes sprung open as I realized what he was referring to, my cheeks burning brightly. "Oh, um… that would be Tolkien Elfish… sort of,"

"Sort of?" he asked with a chuckle.

I looked up at him and scrunched my nose. "When I was thirteen I was really into Lord of the Rings and I continued to be that way despite actually reading the books, so I looked up Tolkien Elfish and made a rough phrase. When May turned eighteen she got a tattoo and dragged me along with her to get one despite the fact that I was still seventeen and cried the whole time,"

"What's it supposed to mean?" he asked, kissing my tattoo.

"It says, '_Innas le melin nin oiala_?' or '_Will you love me forever_?'"

"I think it's perfect," he told me, as his fingertips ran over it before I rolled over and looked up at him, pulling the sheet with me so that it covered my chest.

"So?" I asked.

"What?"

"_Innas le melin nin oiala_?" I asked him, getting him to smile.

"Yes, I will," he told me, leaning down to kiss me tenderly.

After a moment we separated, and Edward smiled contently down at me, my expression mirroring his until I smirked. "You know…" I began, pretending to be in deep thought. "I don't know if I'll like being a vampire…" This seemed to shock Edward but I just smiled. "There is the sex which I very much like but then there is also the fact that you vampires are just so _sad_. There is _Interview with the Vampire_ vampires, _Underworld_ vampires, Patricia Briggs vampires, and then there is our world vampire. Our world's vampires- you especially- ended up with the short end of the stick,"

"You won't think that once you've been damned," he murmured, leaning forward to kiss me on the forehead.

That was when I realized that my head was throbbing, the fresh ocean air from last night and the wonderful night's experience seeming to have worn off, and now I felt like I wanted to hurl. I groaned, pulling away from Edward and curling up into a ball, the heel of one hand pressed against my forehead while the other was pressed against my mouth to keep what little food was in my system down so that I didn't puke on him.

"Andy? Andy, love, what's wrong?"

I felt Edward wrap an arm around me to pull me against his body, his other hand pulling the hand over my mouth away. I opened my eyes carefully to find that I was losing vision in my left eye, everything slowly becoming blurry and dark until everything went black on my left side. I snapped my eyes shut again before turning until my hot forehead touched his ice cold chest.

"Puke pail. Advil. Lots of water," I groaned before I pulled my hand from his and clamped it back down over my mouth. Then I quickly removed it to say; "Please,"

"Of course," he whispered to me, kissing the hand that was over my forehead before I felt a rush of air as he ran to the bathroom.

After a long moment I carefully reached a hand out blindly until I found my undies, pulling them on, and his shirt lying on the end of the bed, pulling it on and buttoning a few buttons. My head was the epitome of pain and I felt like I wanted to barf up my whole stomach. However, what scared me the most is that when I opened my eyes again I couldn't see at all. I instantly closed my eyes and let out a quiet whimper of fear and pain as I slid off the bed, placing a hand on the wall to steady myself.

"Edward?"

Then it happened.


	15. Edward

**Chapter 15 – Edward**

* * *

><p>Edward was in the bathroom, running the water to fill one of the flimsy cups full of water when he heard Andy call for him from the other room just before a loud crash. He froze where he stood, terror flashing in him as his ears told him that there was no movement in the next room, no breathing, no heartbeat. He was out and in the main room in a millisecond and was horrorstruck by what he saw; Andy lying limp and still on the ground, her eyes wide open.<p>

"NO!"

Edward was beside her and furiously checking her for a pulse though he already knew that there would be none before he knew exactly what he needed to do. He bared his teeth and bit her with his venom coated fangs, bit her over and over, pumping her limp body as full of venom as he could. Then he rose over her and began to do CPR, trying desperately to not cross the line between pumping her heart and breaking delicate ribs. He continued to do this well into the night and into the morning until he could hear a soft and slowly gulp of her heart as it continued on by itself.

It took until that night for his family to look for them, hearing Carlisle, Alice's, and May's thoughts as they drove down the road towards their hotel, as they got out of the car, as they traveled up the elevator, as they walked down the hall and as they smelled Andy's blood at the door. May growled low in her throat as her thoughts flashed between killing Edward for drinking from her dead best friend and drinking up what was left of the delicious blood. Carlisle was feel pity and worry for his eldest son and hoped that he'd done what he'd meant to do and that now they could take Andy home, however, the lack of Andy's screams worried Carlisle. Alice already knew what would be inside waiting for them because she'd seen Andy die and that had been what she'd been calling about, but she could also see that Andy would survive and would be the most impressive vampire that any of them would ever see.

Carlisle was the first inside, not bothering to knock on the door but just ran in and stared in shock at Edward. Edward was crouched on the ground cradling Andy's nearly bare but still body, his eyes dead as he blankly stared into space. Carlisle stared at Andy, amazed that she wasn't screaming and begging for death as every human ever bitten had done.

"We know what happened, Edward," Carlisle told his son softly, walking forward to check the progression of Andy's conversion. "We're here to take you both home,"

"She was having one of her headaches," Edward said, his voice quiet and too even. "I had no choice,"

"I know, Edward," Carlisle assured him. "You did the right thing. Don't blame yourself. You'll see that when the conversion is complete. You will have her forever and she will no longer be in pain,"

Edward just continued to stare blankly at nothing as he held Andy to him until Carlisle insisted that they go home. May and Alice cleaned up the room while Edward and Carlisle left out the back door and placed Andy in the car, May checking out of the hotel for them. Together they drove home, Edward not leaving Andy's side until Carlisle took her from him and Esme insisted that he changed his blood stained clothes. That only took a matter of seconds before he was sitting beside Andy, where she'd been laid out on a long table in Carlisle's office where they'd been prepping to change her. Edward slipped in hand in hers, running circles over the back of her hand with his thumb.

The silent worry throughout the whole family that they wouldn't admit to each other- but Edward knew and felt nonetheless- was Andy's silence.

"Still no change?" Carlisle asked as he walked in, coming to check Andy's pulse which was getting steadily more rapid as time went on.

"None," Edward said shortly.

"Andy? Can you hear me?" Carlisle asked, bending down toward her ear.

There was absolutely no sign that she'd heard him; her pale face didn't twitch, her fingers didn't move in the slightest… there wasn't even eye movement.

Edward tried then; once Carlisle had pulled back Edward scooted up in his chair, whispering softly to her, though not so soft that she might not hear him. "Andy? Andy, love? Can you open your eyes? Can you squeeze my hand?"

Edward reached over the table's edge and touched her hand against, squeezing her fingers a little, hoping that something would happen. But there was nothing.

"Maybe…" Edward began sadly, continuing to hold Andy's hand, though the other moved to cover his face. "Carlisle, maybe I was too late,"

"Listen to her heart, Edward," Carlisle told him, trying to reassure his eldest son. "It's strong and her injuries weren't so much worse that Esme's-"

"But Esme's were flesh wounds, Carlisle," Edward interrupted, almost growling.

"The venom will heal her as it did Esme," Carlisle told him firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

There was a long moment as the two vampires stared down at the woman. She was pale, paler than either of them which worried them both though they didn't say it out loud. Her too skinny body- having becoming slightly emaciated from not being able to eat as of late- was filling out beneath the blue dress she still wore. Her hair was also a sight; the purple dye seemed to be flaking off, slowly revealing the dark blonde that was her natural hair color.

But soon Edward broke the silence again.

"What about the wolves?" Edward asked, feeling the need to talk about something else, think about something other than the possibility that his Andy might not make it.

"I phoned them and had a meeting with their pack leader," Carlisle told him. "He said that we can have no more than three weeks to take care of our business and leave,"

"Why?"

There was silence between them as Edward heard the answer in Carlisle's mind.

"Charlie,"

"Billy Black and his son Jacob are close to him and Andy and convinced the other's to allow us to have a funeral for her instead of just leave and leave Charlie wondering,"

"It's kind of them," Edward murmured.

"I think we should tell people the truth; that Andy died on your honeymoon, or in this case, on your way to it," Carlisle mused as he told Edward his plan. "We'll have the funeral in a week and we'll be gone as soon as Andy's ready for travel,"

They were silent again before Alice came streaking into the room, her eyes wide and her hair windblown.

"I can't see her!"

Both male vampires turned to her, shocked and confused.

"I tried to look into her future and I can't see her, it's just blank," Alice explained, her voice coming out at a million miles an hour though any human could have understood her. "Not like she's not going to have a future, but like something's blocking me,"

None of them knew what to make of it at first, until Edward chuckled.

"What?" Alice asked, confused and a little annoyed.

"That's exactly how it felt the first day I met her… how it feels when I try to read her mind," he told them, not sure if he should feel relieved or not.

"Interesting," Carlisle murmured to himself.

Edward stayed with Andy, watching over her until May and Carlisle came in the next day around noon, May rushing over to Andy's over side, staring down at her.

"She's so still," May murmured. "Andy's never been good with pain,"

"I _must_ have done something wrong," Edward murmured, his eyes full of pain as he stared down at the love of his life.

Carlisle instantly put a hand on his shoulder. "Son, you did everything I could have and more. I' not sure I would have had the persistence, the faith it took to save her. Stop berating yourself. Andy is going to be fine,"

"We both know what you are thinking, Carlisle," Edward bit out. "What if the brain tumor has affected her negatively? Left her brain dead and that's why Alice can't see her?"

"We don't know that," Carlisle argued. "We all know that that's just an easy way to explain it, far too easy. It could be her gift, Edward,"

Edward just sighed and looked up at May who was sitting and poking Andy's arm.

"What the hell are you doing?"

May looked up, shocked before she gave an embarrassed smile. "When I was withering around in pain I always wanted something to focus on beside the pain. I had you guys talking and Emmett's breathing. I just figured I'd give her something new to focus on and possible annoy the hell out of her until she moved,"

Edward rolled his eyes at his newest sister before he looked back down at Andy. "Andy," he whispered to her, leaning toward her. "I love you,"

By the end of the day Andy's heart sped up to an impossible rate, alerting everyone that it would soon be over and they'd be able to see if Andy would be the amazing vampire they were all hoping for or be a brain dead creature of the night. They all slowly filed into the room, Carlisle, Jasper and Emmett standing in front of Esme, Alice and May near the door while Edward remained sitting beside the love of his life.

There was a painfully long moment of silence as her heart sped even more and Andy's body suddenly arched up off the table and a gasped breath was drawn through her clenched teeth before her body went slack again. Edward held tight to her hand as her skin turned the same color as his, no longer the sickly pale of before, and her heart began to slow until, with one last gulp, it stopped.

There was a moment of utter silence before Edward leaned toward her carefully.

"Andy?"

Nothing happened.

"Andy, love?"

Then her blood red eyes flashed open.

* * *

><p><strong>THE END<strong>


End file.
